An analysis of the medical expenses of a bronchia and pulmonary cancer group by two-stage cluster method

The objective of this study is to discover the influencing factors of groups by gender and age and the expenses related to bronchial and pulmonary cancer for insight into the root of the problem. An aging population has generated huge expenditures in cancer care. This study proposed a two-stage cluster method by using k-means and a Self-Organizing Map (SOM) to conduct a scientific analysis of the health insurance database of cancer prescription and patients in 2016. The findings of this study revealed that bronchial and pulmonary cancers were responsible for the largest medical expenditure; the average cost was $306,776 for females aged 50 to 54 and $301,788 for males aged 65 to 69. Meanwhile, the results indicated that incidences of bronchial and pulmonary cancer were concentrated in the ages between 45 and 89 for both males and females, with such incidences representing enormous cancer care expenditure. The implications are summarized in this article