The financial and family burden of cancer: Estimates from patients undergoing radiation therapy in a tertiary care teaching hospital in coastal karnataka.

This study is titled Financial and Family Burden of Cancer: Estimates from Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Coastal Karnataka. A hospital-based, cross- sectional study. Patients who are currently undergoing active radiotherapy treatment for cancer and Patients with head and neck cancer, breast cancer, gastrointestinal cancers, and gynaecological cancers and Patients aged 18 and above will be recruited. The primary objective is to quantify the out-of-pocket costs and categorize them by the types incurred by cancer patients during their treatment such as travel cost, prescription drugs and in-home healthcare. The secondary objective of the study is to compare differences in financial burden across various demographic factors such as income, education, age, level of insurance coverage and tumor types (head and neck tumors, breast tumors, gastrointestinal tumors, gynaecological tumors) and to assess how patients and their families perceive the financial burden of these out-of-pocket expenses using a Likert scale.