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Study: Breast-Cancer Admissions Drop

Posted on: Wednesday, 25 October 2006, 15:00 CDT

U.S. hospital admissions for breast cancer fell by one-third between 1997 and 2004, according to a new federal data.

The hospitalization rate for women with breast cancer dropped from 90 per 100,000 women to slightly fewer than 61 per every 100,000 women during the period, and the number of hospital stays for the disease declined from about 125,000 to 90,000, the report by Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality said.

During the same period, the rate of in-hospital mastectomies -- the removal of the entire breast and some of the lymph nodes under the arm, which account for 70 percent of inpatient breast-cancer surgeries -- decreased by 32 percent. The rate for inpatient lumpectomies, where the malignant tumor and some surrounding tissue is removed, decreased by 45 percent.

The decline reflects, in part, the shift to outpatient facilities for breast-cancer surgeries, plus the growing use of breast-conserving operations such as lumpectomies, which are typically performed on an outpatient basis, the report said.

The average cost for a breast-cancer patient stay -- or what it cost hospitals to treat the patients -- was $6,500, and nearly 85 percent of all hospital stays were billed to private insurance and Medicare.

The report is based on data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a national database of hospital inpatient stays that includes short-term, non-federal hospitals.

Source: United Press International

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