The cost of cancer – A comparative analysis of the direct medical costs of cancer and other major chronic diseases in Europe

BACKGROUND: Cancer poses a significant mortality, morbidity, economic and humanistic burden to patients and health systems. This study aims to better understand healthcare expenditure on cancer relative to other major chronic diseases across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, whilst also considering the burden of illness posed by these conditions. METHODS: A targeted literature review was performed to identify and extract relevant demographic, epidemiological and economic data. A health care payer perspective was adopted for the analysis, with a focus on direct healthcare costs. RESULTS: Between 2006–2015, the cancer-related disability-adjusted life year (DALY) disease burden decreased by 9.3% despite a 6.5% increase in prevalence. Whilst the per patient drug costs increased by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.1%, the overall per patient cancer costs decreased over the 10-year study period (CAGR of -1.4%). Compared to cardiovascular disease, neurological/mental disorders and diabetes, cancer was associated with the highest disease burden (20.8% of DALYs across all diseases) but the second-lowest healthcare expenditure levels (4.8% of total healthcare expenditure) among the studied major chronic diseases. CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggests that the costs associated with treating cancer account for a low proportion of total healthcare expenditure relative to the burden of the disease and compared to other major chronic diseases across the countries included in the analysis.