Medical costs for the treatment of cervical cancer at central hospitals in Vietnam

ABSTRACT

Cervical cancer remains the second most common cancer amongst female aged 15 to 44 years old in Vietnam. We estimated medical costs for the treatment of cervical cancer patients. We employed the standard costing approach and health care provider perspective. We first computed the unit cost of 22 medical services related to cervical cancer treatments and then, based on standard cervical cancer treatment protocols, we estimated the cost of nine treatment scenarios for cervical cancer patients. We found that the medical costs for treatment of cervical cancers at central hospitals in Vietnam increased as the cancer progresses into later stages.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Vietnam National Cancer Hospital, Tumor hospital of Ho Chi Minh City, Hue Central hospital for their advice. We thank Chris Jenkins from Queens University Belfast, UK for editing language contents of this paper.