Breast Cancer Treatment Costs Vary Wildly, Study Finds

A new study has found significant variations in the costs of Breast Cancer drugs and treatments, according to Dr. Sharon Giordano, as reported by NBC News.

"The variation adds up to $1 billion a year that insurance companies, patients and government health plans are needlessly paying to treat breast cancer, Giordano and colleagues at the MD Anderson Cancer Center report on Monday in the journal Cancer. Patients often get stuck with thousands of dollars in bills that can take years to pay off.

The team went through insurance claims filed by more than 14,000 breast cancer patients between 2008 and 2012 and found expenses across a single class of drugs varied by as much as $46,000...

Expenditures for cancer care have grown from $72 billion in 2004 to $125 billion in 2010 and are estimated to reach $158 billion by 2020," Giordano's team wrote.

"The costs of cancer care are increasing at an unsustainable rate — two to three times faster than other health care costs. Patients' out-of-pocket costs have also been rapidly increasing."

To read the full article, click HERE.