THURSDAY, Aug. 6, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For older adults, cancer-attributable costs vary with cancer phase, type, and race, according to a study published online July 28 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
Angela B. Mariotto, Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare-linked data to identify individuals aged 66 years and older who were diagnosed with cancer during 2008 to 2019 and matched controls without a cancer history. Cancer-attributable costs were estimated for 2013 to 2019 for initial (first 12 months after diagnosis), continuing, and end-of-life (EOL; final 12 months before death from cancer) phases of care.
The researchers found that the net annualized cancer-attributable medical service costs were highest in the EOL phase, followed by the initial and continuing phases ($121,746, $45,063, and $7,141, respectively). Across all phases, there were increases in oral prescription drug costs, especially in EOL (from $4,823 to $11,620 in 2013 to 2019); after adjustment for inflation, medical service and hospitalization costs remained relatively stable. The highest cost was incurred by acute leukemia and distant-stage cancers. Black individuals and those of other races had higher cancer-attributable costs than White individuals.
"Many advances in cancer treatment introduced in the past decade have been groundbreaking, leading to improved patient outcomes, including survival," senior author K. Robin Yabroff, Ph.D., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, said in a statement. "However, some of these novel treatments are also costly and frequently used in combination and for longer periods, which can lead to substantial increases in overall spending and high out-of-pocket costs for patients and their families."
