Abstract 4377: Economic burden of lung cancer patients in the emergency department
Authors: Hsiung Jayla , Taneja Kamil , Hum Bill , Patel Karan , Diaz Michael , Chandragiri Shreyas , Toloza Eric M. 
Published: April 2023

Introduction: In 2022, the National Cancer Institute estimated that more than 240,000 individuals will be diagnosed with lung or bronchus cancer. Many patients present to the emergency department (ED) for septicemia and pneumonia, which leads to long hospital stays. However, there is little data on the annual trends of hospital charges and risk factors for a high charge for these patients.

Methods: We utilized the 2006-2012 Nationwide Emergency Department Sample to analyze the charges of lung cancer patients. Multivariate linear regressions were used to identify factors associated with higher ED and inpatient (IP) costs. The 20 most common primary diagnoses of these patients were included in the analysis to take into account the reason for the ED visit. Charges were corrected for inflation by normalizing to 2012 US Dollars.

Results: During this time period, 1,344,817 lung cancer patients presented to the ED. Lung cancer patients were charged a cumulative of $3.06 billion in the ED and $38.6 billion in the IP setting. Annual cumulative ED charges increased by a factor of 2.5 from $575 million in 2006 to $1.42 billion in 2012 (p&lt;0.001). Annual cumulative IP charges increased by a factor of 1.4 from $10.8 billion in 2006 to $14.6 billion in 2012 (p&lt;0.001). Furthermore, annual per-patient ED and IP charges increased significantly during this time period. Per-patient annual ED charges increased by a factor of 1.6 from $2,169 in 2006 to $3,522 in 2012 (p&lt;0.001). Per-patient annual IP charges increased by a factor of 1.2 from $41,835 in 2006 to $49,051 in 2012 (p&lt;0.001). Table 1 shows the top 5 factors associated with higher ED and with higher IP charges, respectively.

Conclusion: The ED and IP charges associated with lung cancer patients are drastically increasing. ED charges have increased by a factor of 2.5 and IP charges have increased by a factor of 1.4 from 2006 to 2012. Furthermore, hospitals in the West and Midwest are associated with higher charges.

Factors Associated with High Emergency Department and Inpatient Charges for Lung Cancer Patients Emergency Department Inpatient Factor Beta (95% Confidence Interval) p-value Factor Beta (95% Confidence Interval) p-value Chest Pain 2868 (2628-3109) &lt;0.001 Septicemia 22251 (19960-24541) &lt;0.001 Abdominal Pain 2274 (2041-2509) &lt;0.001 West Hospital 22155 (16220-28090) &lt;0.001 West Hospital 1434 (1007-1862) &lt;0.001 Respiratory Failure 19331 (16798-11557) &lt;0.001 Midwest Hospital 933 (662-1205) &lt;0.001 Secondary Malignancy 10283 (9009-11557) &lt;0.001 Lower Respiratory Disease 882 (756-1007 &lt;0.001 Age 30-39 9057 (349-17755) &lt;0.001

Citation Format: Jayla Hsiung, Kamil Taneja, Bill Hum, Karan Patel, Michael Diaz, Shreyas Chandragiri, Eric M. Toloza. Economic burden of lung cancer patients in the emergency department. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 4377.