Treatment Costs for Pediatrics Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Comparing Clinical Expenditures in Developed and Developing Countries: a Review Article

Hayati, Hadi; Kebriaeezadeh, Abbas; Ehsani, Mohammad Ali; Nikfar, Shekoufeh; Akbari Sari, Ali; Troski, Mehdi; Molla Tigabu, Bereket

doi:10.22038/ijp.2016.7791

Treatment Costs for Pediatrics Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia; Comparing Clinical Expenditures in Developed and Developing Countries: a Review Article

Authors

Hadi Hayati ¹

Abbas Kebriaeezadeh ¹

Mohammad ali Ehsani ²

Shekoufeh Nikfar ¹

Ali Akbari Sari ³

Mehdi Troski ¹

Bereket Molla Tigabu ⁴

¹ Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Administration, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

² Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Bahrami Hospital, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

³ Department of Health Management and Economics, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran

⁴ International Campus, Department of Pharmacoeconomics and Pharmaceutical Management Haramaya University School of Pharmacy.

10.22038/ijp.2016.7791

Abstract

Background
Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common, yet curable childhood malignancy within the pediatric cancers; but in most developed and developing countries cost of cancer treatment in children with ALL is high. So, we specified the range of expenses for the treatment of pediatric cancer and compared the results in developed and developing countries.
Materials and Methods
To evaluate treatment costs in childhood ALL, a review was taken place through published papers during the years 2000 to 2015. We searched multiple well known databases such as Medline, Scopus, ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar on January 2015 with "cost effectiveness", "cost utility", "cost minimization", "cost analysis", "economic evaluation", "childhood", "acute lymphoblastic leukemia", and "ALL" as our keywords.
Results
Regarding the reviewed evidence the essential result was that the total costs for treatment of pediatrics ALL in developing countries such as Asian countries were considerably lower than the costs reported from high income countries in Europe and North America. So different protocols were performed to treat ALL and this matter was significant due to the different durations of hospitalization.
Conclusion
According to the results, the total costs for treatment of pediatrics ALL in developing countries were considerably lower than the costs reported from high income countries.

Keywords

Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia

Children

Costs

Developed Countries

Developing countries