Cost to the NHS of Prostate Treatment

Hi Tamtoot
I don't know about the biopsy but I did read some time ago that a Prostatectomy costs between 5 & 10K. My hospital had a new Varian linear accelerator 2 years ago and that was over 2M. My guess is that an MRI scanner wont be much different. My prostap injections are something like £230 each, I have had 8 of those. I would not be surprised if the total cost of my treatment was £40000+ ( Biopsy, MRI, LRP, RT, ADT, 30+ visits to doctors and consultants, blood tests (ultra sensitive PSA tests wont be cheap)).
Batholith

Edited by member 08 Feb 2015 at 22:36  | Reason: Not specified

It is rather old (2006) but this BBC article sheds some light on costs
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/4898158.stm

The Prostate centre in London quote £15K - £18K on their front page including specialist fees for a full course of radiotherapy

Edited by member 09 Feb 2015 at 18:49  | Reason: Not specified

I think the £150k will be gross cost to the NHS rather than an estimate of what they would charge an individual. Most of these new technologies are on HP so a proportion of the cost of the machine, staffing an RT suite, running the appointment system, cleaners, drinking water, paper towel for the beds, the computer programming, lab technicians - I bet it mounts up frighteningly quickly.

Dad paid £18,000 cash for RP 13 years ago. I will look at our invoices tomorrow to see what we paid for John's RP & RT.

Perhaps another question is how much more does cost to treat guys because of late detection. I was amazed how many guys had gone to see their doctors with issues unrelated to prostate problems and then found to have prostate cancer. Would a screening programme cost more financially than the cost of additional treatments and drugs that are needed through late detection.

Thanks Chris

When I researched treatment for my PCa in 2008, I had a consultation with a professor who secured funding for a number of his patients to have Proton Beam therapy in the USA. He therefore had a good knowledge of costs. He told me that if I wanted Proton Beam treatment there for my PCa, I should budget £90,000 to include board and extra costs over 3 months including preliminaries. US hospitals make sure what they charge covers all their costs (unlike some of the UK ones that run at a loss). Of course there has been inflation since this calculation but if this is taken at a draw dropping 50%, it is still well below the £150K mentioned for Varian RT in the UK. Indeed the projected cost per patients in the new Proton Beam centres due to open in the UK in 2018 is estimated at£40K and remember Proton Beam treatment costs over twice that of Photon RT. http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2013/09/16/proton-therapy-is-coming-to-the-uk-but-what-does-it-mean-for-patients/ (Quote 'However, at around £40,000 per patient, the costs should ultimately work out as cheaper than sending people abroad and are expected to fall over time. What’s more, having facilities in the UK will cut down some of the extra expenses for families and carers. And it should also enable more people to benefit from the treatment' unquote.) The cost of installing and running a refined Varian IMRT linac is not in the same league as as the capital and running costs of a Proton Beam facility so costs per fraction will reflect this.

Edited by member 11 Feb 2015 at 11:12  | Reason: Not specified

Speaking with Jamie last night, NHS new price for Abiraterone is £1,800 per month

£450 per week for what i think is one of the best drugs for Prostate cancer around.

absolute bargain