Finding cancer late carries a terrible price, in both lives and dollars. A new study led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society puts some startling numbers behind that familiar truth.
Using Medicare data on cancer patients aged 66 and older, researchers calculated that cancer-attributable medical costs averaged nearly $122,000 during the final year before a cancer death. Patients diagnosed after their cancers had already spread generally incurred the highest costs, while costs tended to be lower for earlier-stage disease.
Breast cancer offers an especially powerful example of the value of early detection. Among women whose breast cancer is caught before it spreads beyond the breast, five-year relative survival is 100%. Once the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body, it falls to 33.8%.
The lesson for policymakers is clear. Our health system should treat clinically appropriate early detection as high-value care — the kind that can save lives and reduce patients’ chances of facing the extraordinary costs and burdens of advanced disease. Efforts to restrict or delay access to screening in the name of financial prudence can be a false economy.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.
The high cost of finding breast cancer too late
Sally C. Pipes
Finding cancer late carries a terrible price, in both lives and dollars. A new study led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute and American Cancer Society puts some startling numbers behind that familiar truth.
Using Medicare data on cancer patients aged 66 and older, researchers calculated that cancer-attributable medical costs averaged nearly $122,000 during the final year before a cancer death. Patients diagnosed after their cancers had already spread generally incurred the highest costs, while costs tended to be lower for earlier-stage disease.
Breast cancer offers an especially powerful example of the value of early detection. Among women whose breast cancer is caught before it spreads beyond the breast, five-year relative survival is 100%. Once the cancer has spread to distant parts of the body, it falls to 33.8%.
The lesson for policymakers is clear. Our health system should treat clinically appropriate early detection as high-value care — the kind that can save lives and reduce patients’ chances of facing the extraordinary costs and burdens of advanced disease. Efforts to restrict or delay access to screening in the name of financial prudence can be a false economy.
Read the op-ed here.
Nothing contained in this blog is to be construed as necessarily reflecting the views of the Pacific Research Institute or as an attempt to thwart or aid the passage of any legislation.