Cost analysis and substitution of conventional treatment by autologous bone marrow transplantation for patients with (non) Hodgkin's lymphoma or acute myeloid leukemia

In a retrospective study we calculated the costs of introducing autologous BMT in the treatment of patients with malignant lymphoma and acute leukaemia in The Netherlands. The cost analysis has been performed in five university hospitals and one cancer centre, in a series of patients with intermediate and high grade non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) and patients with AML. Conventional treatment consisted of chemotherapy. The average costs of the conventional NHL treatment varied from US$3120 to U$12,900. The costs of autologous BMT amounted to US$40,220. In the AML group the costs of conventional treatment amounted to about US$11,040, as only 50% of the patients were treated further. The costs of autologous BMT including a follow-up period of 2 years, amounted to US$55,440. In The Netherlands the total number of autologous BMTs per year in these patient groups was estimated at 230; 180 in the NHL group and 50 in the AML group. The costs of introducing autologous BMT to the NHL group will vary between 4.93 and 6.68 million dollars and for the AML group these costs were estimated at 2.22 million dollars. As a result, the total extra costs of introducing autologous BMTs are expected to be between 7.15 and 8.9 million dollars.