BCN HEALTH publishes a study evaluating the incidence, mortality and medical costs associated to melanoma in Spain

BCN HEALTH has published the study ‘Incidence, mortality and medical costs of patients hospitalized with melanoma in Spain: a retrospective multicentre observational study’ in the journal ‘Current Medical Research & Opinion’, an international journal interested in publishing any research related to new treatments, public health research and epidemiology studies.

BCN HEALTH conducted a retrospective study based on the records of patients diagnosed with a melanoma and treated in Spanish public and private hospitals between January of 2011 and December of 2017. The objective of this study was to analyze the characteristics of the patients with melanoma attended in Spanish hospitals, to evaluate trends in hospital incidence and in-hospital mortality and to quantify patients’ use of resources and medical costs.

The files obtained corresponded to 16,657 patients diagnosed with a melanoma. In-hospital incidence of melanoma was 67.5 and 58.2 per 100,000 males and females. In-hospital mortality was 7.7% for males and 5.3% for female patients, and was principally associated to metastatic tumors. In 37.9% of admissions secondary malignant tumors were registered, principally in the lymph nodes.

Mean length of hospital stay was 4.4 days. Up to 66.8% of admissions of patients with melanoma were registered in surgery services, where the most frequent procedures were the excision of lymph nodes, and the radical excision of skin lesions. The mean annual direct medical cost per patient was €4,175, increasing in patients over 75 years of age and in those with metastatic tumors. The total annual direct medical cost of specialized care was €9.9 million.