Economic Burden of Cancer

The economic burden of cancer is the economic cost to the nation associated with expenditures on cancer preventive, screening and treatment services, the economic cost associated with time and effort spent by patients and their families undergoing cancer treatment and the economic cost associated with lost productivity due to cancer-related disability and premature death. One approach to estimating this burden is the Cost-of-Illness study, that uses various national level data sources to obtain estimates of these various components. Studies: Economic Burden of Cancer provide Cost-of-Illness estimates for the aggregate (national), annual economic costs of cancer, including costs which are related to direct medical expenditures, lost economic activity due to morbidity and lost economic activity due to premature mortality. These reports also tend to include all types of cancer. These studies may be useful for ascertaining an aggregate, global picture of the economic burden of cancer to the US on an annual basis. The last report in this category includes estimates of costs of illness for all disease categories and NIH budget expenditures for those categories.