Retrospective study of the association of national health expenditure and survival of lymphoid neoplasms in 27 European countries

Management of lymphoid malignancies requires substantial health system resources. The population-based retrospective EUROCARE-6 study investigated the association between national health expenditure and long-term survival or patients with lymphoid neoplasms in 27 European countries. The 10-year age-standardized relative survival (ASRS) for each of 12 lymphoid malignancies was higher, and the relative excess risk (RER) of death lower, in countries in the highest national health expenditure quartile, with a decreasing pattern through quartiles for many lymphoid malignancies. For non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the most representative class for lymphoid malignancies based on the number of incident cases, the 10-year ASRS in quartile 1, 2, 3 and 4 was 59.3%, 57.6%, 55.4%, and 44.7%, whereas the RER was 0.80, 0.91, 0.94, and 1.45. The authors conclude that among European countries, total national health expenditure is associated with geographical inequalities in lymphoid malignancy prognosis.