The Economic Impact of Cancer: General

According to the World Health Organization, “a diagnosis of cancer in one of the adults in a family may lead not only to the loss of a source of income, but also all too frequently to exhausting the family's remaining income and resources in seeking treatments. Perhaps saddest of all are the futile frantic searches and large amounts of money paid by the family for treatments that cannot prolong the life of the family member with advanced cancer. If families feel abandoned by their formal health care system they may spend their remaining resources seeking assistance from well-meaning or unscrupulous individuals who falsely promise to help.”

Source: World Health Organization

The Economic Impact of Cancer: U.S.A.

The National Institutes of Health estimate the “overall costs for cancer in the year 2003 at $189.5 billion: $64.2 for direct medical costs (total of all health expenditures); $16.3 billion for indirect morbidity costs; costs of lost productivity due to illness; and $109 billion for indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity due to premature death). Lack of health insurance and other barriers prevent many Americans from receiving optimal health care.”

Source: National Institutes of Health

The Economic Impact of Cancer: Canada

The Canadian Cancer Statistics 2004 features a special section on the economic burden of cancer. The data is from a Health Canada report entitled The Economic Burden of Illness in Canada , 1998. The report was published in 2002. Highlights are:

• Cancer has a significant impact in Canada measured by direct and indirect costs together. Direct costs refer to the value of goods and services for which payment was made and resources used in treatment, care and rehabilitation directly related to illness or injury. Indirect costs are defined as the value of economic output lost because of illness, injury-related work disability or premature death.


• Overall, the total cost of illness in 1998 in Canada was $159 billion, of which $84 billion (53 percent) were direct costs and $75 billion (47 percent) indirect costs. Just over one-half (55 percent) of these total costs could be attributed to a specific disease. Of these disease-specific costs, $14.2 billion (nine percent of the total cost of illness) were related to cancer : which is ranked third in total costs after cardiovascular (12 percent) and musculoskeletal (10 percent) diseases.

Of the total indirect costs of illness in Canada in 1998 ($75 billion) cancer accounted for $11.8 billion (16 percent); ranking second to musculoskeletal diseases. Cancer accounted for almost one-third of premature death costs (32 percent) reflecting the fact that cancer is the leading cause of premature death in Canada. Eight percent of the costs of premature death, due to all diseases, were accounted for by lung cancer alone (or 26 percent of the total due to cancer).

Source: The Canadian Cancer Society Media Release