| roblem: Worldwide, a child is diagnosed with cancer every three minutes. More than 80% of the approximately 200,000 children diagnosed each year live in low and middle income countries. All too often these children have little to no access to life-saving care: only 20% of children diagnosed have access to effective treatment and 90% of childhood cancer deaths now occur in low income countries where access to effective treatment is severely limited.;Rationale: Despite these disheartening statistics, childhood cancer can be highly curable when access to treatment is available. Dramatic improvements in childhood survival rates have been achieved in low income countries where a commitment to access to care has been made and long-term partnerships have been established. Unfortunately, questions around the affordability of cancer care persist.;Study Design: The project utilized a micro-costing approach to capture and calculate a cost for the overall cancer program at the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence in Rwanda as well as a per patient cost for 2 common pediatric cancers: Hodgkin lymphoma and Wilms tumor. Costs were analyzed retrospectively from the provider perspective for the fiscal year 2013-2014 and comprised fixed costs, including infrastructure, utilities, administrative costs and maintenance costs, as well as variable costs such as drug pricing, social support, staff salaries, and patient support costs.;Results: The overall cost of the cancer program for the 2013-2014 fiscal year was estimated at... |
