Reimbursement for Prostate Cancer Treatment

Prostate cancer (PCa) is a highly prevalent disease with favorable long-term survival in low-risk patients. The majority of PCa patients in the United States receive radical primary treatment in the form of radical prostatectomy or external beam radiation therapy. New technologies have diffused into the field of prostate cancer and have been adopted at a remarkable pace. Most surgery is currently performed robotically and most radiation therapy is delivered with intensity modulated radiation therapy technology. Both advances represent expensive innovative technologies that have limited evidence from prospective randomized studies for superiority over previous generation therapies. Reimbursement for treatment and complex economic considerations are important factors in the dissemination of these technologies. New healthcare legislation will increasingly focus on the cost-effectiveness of new technologies as public scrutiny on healthcare expenditure continues to mount.