Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common form of liver cancer in the United Kingdom. It often develops in people with existing liver conditions such as cirrhosis or hepatitis and other conditions such as type II diabetes. There are various treatments available for people with HCC. These include surgery, to remove the affected part of the liver, drug treatment to try and reduce the size of the cancer and liver transplantation. However, patients are often only aware of the condition at a late stage and many patients die within six months of first diagnosis. HCC represents a large burden to health services due to the cost of surgery, drugs and patient care. The aim of this study is to use the Clinical Practice Research Datalink to define a population with newly diagnosed HCC and to determine how many contacts they have with their general practice and hospitals. We then wish to find out how much these contacts cost and compare them to patients without HCC and also discover how the cost of treating HCC changes as the condition progresses. This will provide important information which improve the care and treatment for people with HCC
The aim of this study is to use a retrospective cohort design to estimate the healthcare resource utilisation and costs associated with Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The CPRD GOLD and linked datasets (HES admitted patient care, outpatient and accident and emergency and the Cancer Registry) will be used. The study will be limited to CPRD acceptable patients, registered at an up-to-standard practice who are eligible for the CPRD linkage scheme. Patients with HCC will be identified during the study period (2007-16) based on a Read (CPRD GOLD) or ICD-10 (HES admitted patient care and Cancer Registry) code. Identified cases will be matched to controls by primary care practice, age and gender. Date of first diagnosis will be the index date. The baseline characteristics of the cases and controls will be presented. All healthcare contacts and primary care issued prescriptions following index date will be identified and costed using published NHS healthcare costs. For the two year period (2014-15) where available, therapy costs will also be identified from the Cancer Registry SACT table. Costs will be compared between cases and controls using the non-parametric Wilcoxon signed-rank. In addition, the mean monthly costs of treating patients with HCC will be presented graphically to identify the most costly elements of the treatment cycle.
Frequency of Visit to the GP
- Prescriptions issued in the community
- Progression of Disease
- Medical Diagnosis of comorbidities
- Mortality
- Secondary care contacts
Christopher Morgan - Chief Investigator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Christopher Morgan - Corresponding Applicant - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Ronda Copher - Collaborator - Eisai Pharmaceuticals
Sara Jenkins-Jones - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Thomas Berni - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Sara Jenkins-Jones - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
Thomas Berni - Collaborator - Pharmatelligence Limited t/a Human Data Sciences
HES Accident and Emergency;HES Admitted Patient Care;HES Outpatient;NCRAS Cancer Registration Data;NCRAS Systemic Anti-Cancer Treatment (SACT) data;ONS Death Registration Data;Patient Level Index of Multiple Deprivation