Elderly and impoverished cancer patients need urgent help in India

Abstract

This paper describes how the Kailash Cancer Hospital, a nonprofit centre in Goraj, Gujarat State, India, provides a cost-effective cancer treatment for poor people. 81 patients (aged 50-71 years; 54% females) were treated for cancer from January 2008 to August 2009. More patients came from towns (55.6%) than villages (44.4%) showing increased awareness in urban areas. Most were farmers (27.2%), followed by homemakers (21.0%), construction workers (14.8%), factory workers (14.8%), unemployed (8.6%), retired (3.7%) and miscellaneous (driver, maid, tailor, priest, etc; 9.9%). The average cost of treatment was $582.7+or-231.7, which is 4 times cheaper than other hospitals. There were no gender differences in costs. The most commonly used treatment was radiotherapy (77.8%), followed by surgery (12.3%) and chemotherapy (9.9%). The original bill and actual amount paid by patients differed significantly among the 3 treatment types and the poor received significant discounts for treatment. The patients paid the highest amounts for radiotherapy ($404.6+or-195.4), representing nearly 1.4-1.9 times of the costs of surgery and chemotherapy. The average savings by elderly cancer patients was 37.9%, while the mean actual amount paid after discount was $371.6+or-209.1. The hospital provided discounts of 5-100% and 81.5% of patients had discounts ranging from 10 to 55%. As a result, each patient on average saved 37.9+or-20.9% and the highest saving occurred for surgery with an average of 56.2+or-29.3%, which was significantly different from the lowest saving of radiotherapy of 34.3+or-17.4%. This study shows that elderly patients in India can get affordable/free treatment if more non-profit cancer centres are available.