Bladder cancer care continues to represent a significant financial burden on the population and on the healthcare system.
The incidence of bladder cancer has increased over the last two decades. Therapeutic advances have occurred in bladder cancer care, but at an increased cost to payers, providers, and patients. Intravesical treatment of non-muscle invasive tumors represents one of the main costs. For this reason therapeutic schedules need to be rationalized. In this perspective, we present some critical remarks on: the use of gemcitabine in clinical practice; the real impact of the perioperative chemotherapy, emphasizing the cost and effectiveness in high-risk patients, and finally the optimization of intravesical treatments.There is a need for the scientific community to focus on their resources and convey efforts not in the treatment of low-risk cancers (present in significant numbers in various studies), which the Anglo-Saxons call "nuisance tumor" since they can be treated easily and effectively at low cost, but definitely to engage in the study of the treatment of cancer at high risk of recurrence and progression, and it is on this field that the cost (economic, management, subjective) / benefit ratio must be assessed.
Written by:
Curotto AG. Are you the author?
UO Complessa di Urologia Istituto di Clinica Urologica "Luciano Giuliani", IRCCS Azienda Osp. Universitaria San Martino - IST, Genova - Italy.
Reference: Urologia. 2013 Mar 22;0(0):0.
doi: 10.5301/RU.2013.10857
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 23559134
Article in Italian.
UroToday.com Bladder Cancer Section
