Cancer treatment costing New Zealand more than NZ$500 million a year

A new report from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health says that the price of registered cancers for a single year as NZ$511 million (US$396.9 million; 2008/09 prices - excluding screening programs and supported care). This relates predominantly to public hospital discharges (42%), out-patient attendance (22%), and community and hospital pharmacy dispensing (10%). Individually, female breast cancer (15%), cancer of the colorectum and anus (14%), and hematological and lymphoid cancers (13%) consume the largest shares.

The price of cancer in New Zealand has been estimated before, but not for all registered cancers and without the same level of granularity - this report presents mean price by date of diagnosis, site and service, the report notes.

The mean price for a single cancer for six years (one year prior to and five years following diagnosis) is calculated as NZ$20,372.50 (2008/09 prices - excluding screening programs and supported care). The most expensive cancers on average are hematological and lymphoid cancers (NZ$38,834).