Prostate cancer care in elderly men costs Medicare $1.2 billion

The study, published in JAMA Oncology (Sept. 13, 2018, was based on an analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Looking at the period between 2004 and 2007. The authors identified nearly 50,000 men who were diagnosed with nonmetastatic prostate cancer at 70 years of age or older. About half of the patients were 76 years of age or older. While many patients in the US can’t afford curative cancer treatments, a recent report has shown that the Medicare is spending a median of $14,453 per patient within 3 years after the diagnosis of localized prostate cancer in elderly men. The total Medicare estimated 3-year costs is $1.2 billion.  Localized prostate cancer is a condition that is rarely fatal, especially in elderly men because localized prostate cancer grows slowly such that there are higher chances of the patient dying of something else. Therefore, is questionable the spending of a big amount of taxpayers’ money…. since there is no prevention of prostate cancer in those patients…