Oral Presentation Cancer Survivorship 2019

The Australian and international perspectives on financial toxicity (#4)

Sanchia Aranda 1
  1. Cancer Council Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Financial toxicity is defined by NCI as the “problems a patient has related to the cost of medical care”. While out-of-pocket costs for medical care are a substantial driver of financial toxicity or distress, they are far from the only source of costs for the patient and family. Inability to work, costs associated with accessing treatment such as transport and accommodation, and additional requirements such as dressings, over-the-counter medicines and special equipment all add to the problem. There is growing evidence that financial toxicity is relevant to patient outcomes, including survival and that the problem exists across settings of care and across countries of vastly different developmental index. This presentation will explore the range of factors contributing to financial toxicity in Australia and Internationally and consider some of the policy imperatives Cancer Council has identified in seeking to address this problem in Australia. These imperatives include redefining informed consent to include matters related to treatment costs, adoption of a new standard of informed financial consent, changes to Centrelink and other government services to provide improved financial navigation and counselling and raising awareness of the significant gap in cancer outcomes between the poorest and wealthiest Australians.