Incidence, lifetime health impact and medical costs of renal cell carcinoma in Taiwan

Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) incidence has risen for decades. We aimed to explore the epidemiologic trends, long-term outcomes, and lifetime medical costs of RCC in Taiwan. Data from the National Cancer Registry, Mortality Registry, and the National Health Insurance of Taiwan were interlinked and we collected 14,131 RCC cases from 1998 to 2016. The Cumulative incidence rates (aged 20-79) of RCC consistently increased from 0.37% to 0.73% in males and from 0.23% to 0.36% in females, respectively. The life expectancy (LE) of women RCC seemed slightly better than that of men after stratification by age, while the loss of LE appeared similar in both sexes. However, women with clear cell RCC showed a higher loss of LE than men if diagnosed before the age of 65 years. Although the lifetime costs incurred by patients with RCC decreased among middle- and older-aged individuals, the annual cost per life-year appeared to increase with age. Increased proportion of target therapy in aged 50-64 among male RCC partially accounted for the increased lifetime costs in this group. We concluded that RCC is associated with heavy health and economic burdens in Taiwan and prevention would be the first strategy for control.