Emed News

Cancer treatment spending has risen but remains stable in proportion to total U.S. treatment spending.

The financial costs of cancer treatment are a burden to people diagnosed with cancer, their families, and society as a whole. Cancer treatment accounted for an estimated $72.1 billion in 2004-just under 5 percent of U.S. spending for all medical treatment. Between 1995 and 2004, the overall costs of treating cancer increased by 75 percent. In the near future it is expected that cancer costs may increase at a faster rate than overall medical expenditures. As the population ages, the absolute number of people treated for cancer will increase faster than the overall population, and cancer cases will increase relative to other disease categories-even if cancer incidence rates remain constant or decrease somewhat. Costs also are likely to increase at the individual level as new, more advanced, and more expensive treatments are adopted as standards of care.

Updated estimates are currently being calculated for cancer treatment costs by phase of care and the national economic burden of cancer treatment for all cancers combined, as well as for cancer of the lung, breast, colorectal, prostate, head/neck, bladder, ovary, kidney, endometrial, cervix, pancreas, and esophagus; and lymphoma, leukemia, and melanoma. These cost estimates will be available in 2008. NCI will continue to monitor cancer costs and track the percentage of total medical costs accounted for by cancer care. Over the last three decades, this percentage has remained remarkably constant.