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$94 billion in earnings, 8.7 million years of life lost to cancer in 2015
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Lost earnings from cancer deaths in the United States totaled more than $94 billion in 2015, with wide variations in economic burden across states, according to study results published in JAMA Oncology.
Cancer also took more than 8.7 million years of life among Americans aged 16 to 84 years in 2015, researchers noted.
“Years of life and lost earnings were very high for many cancers for which there are modifiable risk factors and effective screening and treatment,” Farhad Islami, MD, PhD, strategic director of cancer surveillance research at American Cancer Society, said in a press release. “[This] suggests that a substantial proportion of our current national mortality burden is potentially avoidable.”
More than 606,880 Americans are expected to die this year of cancer, the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. Productivity losses due to premature cancer death place a significant burden on the U.S. economy.
In the current study, Islami and fellow American Cancer Society researchers sought to estimate lost earnings from cancer deaths nationally and by state. They calculated person-years of life lost (PYLL) for 2015 using National Center for Health Statistics data on cancer mortality and life expectancy for individuals aged 16 to 84 years. They used annual median earnings data from a 2016 U.S. Census Bureau survey to allocate a monetary value for each PYLL by age and sex.
Lost earnings resulting from cancer death, represented as estimated future wages in a full life span, served as the study’s main outcome.
Results showed the 492,146 cancer deaths among individuals aged 16 to 84 years in 2015 equated to 8,739,939 person-years of life lost and $94.4 billion (95% CI, 91.7 billion-97.3 billion) in lost earnings, or $191,900 per cancer death. When analyzed by disease site, lost earnings appeared highest for lung cancer ($21.3 billion), followed by colorectal ($9.4 billion), female breast ($6.2 billion) and pancreatic ($6.1 billion) cancer.
Researchers observed considerable variation among states in age-standardized lost earnings per 100,000 residents, ranging from $19.6 million (95% CI, 19.1 million-20.2 million) in Utah to $35.3 million (95% CI, 34.4 million-36.3 million) in Kentucky. States in the South and Midwest had the highest rates of lost earnings, whereas states in the West and Northeast and Hawaii had the lowest rates.
The researchers noted that if all states had the same lost earnings rate as Utah in 2015, the national rate would have decreased by 29.3%, or $27.7 billion (95% CI, 26.9 billion-28.5 billion). Meanwhile, lost life-years would have decreased by 2.4 million nationally.
The researchers noted that because of data limitations, they likely underestimated productivity loss. Moreover, the researchers based the mean life expectancies on life tables that included all causes of death, which also served as a study limitation. Study strengths included the use of detailed nationwide mortality data and a sensitivity analysis that reflected varying economic conditions among states.
“Applying comprehensive cancer prevention interventions and ensuring equitable access to high-quality care across all states could reduce the burden of cancer and associated geographic and other differences in the country,” Islami said in the press release. “Health care professionals can contribute to achieving this goal because they play a central role in the delivery of cancer prevention, screening and treatment.” – by Jennifer Byrne
Disclosures: The researchers report employment by American Cancer Society, which received a grant from Merck Inc. for intramural research outside the submitted work.
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