The social costs of cancer

Abstract

The annual social costs of cancer, exclusive of economic costs such as medical costs and loss of earnings while incapacitated, are systematically developed. The social costs of cancer are believed significant because they may exceed the economic costs, and resource allocation on the basis of the economic costs alone distorts the socially optimal allocations of such resources.

Some twenty-five separate social costs are identified qualitatively from a review of the oncology literature. Included are social costs to the victims of cancer, to the immediate family and colleagues of the victims, and to care-givers. These qualitative social costs are then translated into equaivalent money costs on the basis of market costs or shadow prices of imputed costs. The total social costs are computed by multiplying the average individual total social costs times the number of such individuals affected. The present value of future cost streams is also considered.

The social costs of cancer apparently exceed the simple economic costs by over an order of magnitude. There are also indications that some forms of cancer incur much higher social costs than others, as well as much higher social costs than economic costs, suggesting that a more optimal allocation of public resources for reducing the total costs of the disease would shift resources to alleviation of social costs, where investment in medical therapies approaches saturation.