Treatment patterns and direct medical costs of metastatic colorectal cancer patients: A retrospective study of electronic medical records from urban China.

Conclusions: Before 2017, mCRC patients in China did not receive the maximum benefits of precision medicine breakthroughs. Reduced treatment cycles and increased costs per cycle from first- to third-line suggested poor healthcare resource utilization. With earlier initiation and more treatment cycles, targeted biologics may better demonstrate their effectiveness among Chinese patients. Our findings reflected the urgent need to increase drug accessibility in China before 2017 and underscore that including innovative biologics into Chinese health insurance plans can reduce patients' economic burden and improve the management of mCRC. PMID: 31950863 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Journal of Medical Economics - Category: Health Management Tags: J Med Econ Source Type: research