Stage II Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma - Costs in USA?

misterray22 · New User Joined: 15 Nov 2008 Posts: 1

I am a 42 yrs old, male, and of Asian descent, and I have just been diagnosed with NPC while working abroad in Bangkok, Thailand. A CT Scan followed by a biopsy and MRI indicated it had progressed to stage II. I am scheduled for a PET Scan in a couple of days in preparation for IMRT and concurrent chemotherapy. I am being treated at Bungrungrad Hospital, an international hospital in Bangkok, and purportedly one of the best in the region.

I am faced with the decision of taking a few months off and going back to the US for treatment, or staying in Bangkok to do the treatment here. According to the Bangkok doctors, I will need the following:

PET Scan - to determine the extent of the tumor and to plan for radiation treatment.
IMRT - 35 outpatient treatments over a 7 week period (5 days/week, 2 days off).
Concurrent Chemotherapy - 2 inpatient 3-day sessions - one early in the IMRT phase, one late in the IMRT phase.
Adjuvant Chemotherapy - 4 sessions - once a month following IMRT.

I've been given an estimate of somewhere between 700,000 Baht ($20,000) and 1,000,000 Baht (<$30,000).

My insurance is pretty horrible and would barely scratch the surface of the entire cost.

Would anyone be able to give me a rough estimate of how much this treatment would cost in the US -- more specifically, in Hawaii, as that's my home?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2403

Hello,

I'm sorry you are facing this disease and hope that the treatment will give you a cure.

I can only relate that the billing for certain types of the chemo my husband was given would cost up to 25,000 for one treatment. Even the Procrit and Neulasta shots ran from 4k - 9k apiece. Natually, that's not what the insurance paid because they all have negotiated top rates they will pay for treatment, but the doctor's still bill the full amount to them anyway. We had top notch insurance with low deductibles. (Medicare and a supplemental policy.) We never paid more than 1500.00 out of pocket per year during his fight, but I think this is pretty rare.

I'd suggest calling your insurance company to make sure what percentages they cover for the suggested treatment and what your deductibles are before coming back to the U.S. for treatment. I hope others will stop in and give you some dollar amounts that were billed for their treatments. We may have seen high billing because we were at a one doctor practice as opposed to a cancer center.

I wish you well and hope you find your coverage is better than you expected.

PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

lynnedbird · Regular Joined: 24 Aug 2006 Posts: 14

My dad had lung cancer and each of his treatments( chemo) was 24,000 to 27,000 and he did this for 6 months. Bill were unreal, insurance did cover alot!! My husband now has throat cancer and his radiation bills have been 15,000 a week!! for 6 weeks ALOT!! pet scans were 4500, and all the dr bills, so far around 200,000 and we are not done yet!!

thisisyourlife · New User Joined: 10 Oct 2009 Posts: 2

My IMRT treatments, 39 sessions, for NPC, alone, was well over 100k is the US.

Mark

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