An economic evaluation of the war on cancer
By: Eric C. Sun, Anupam B. Jena, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Carolina M. Reyes, Tomas J. Philipson, Dana P. Goldman.
Contributors: Sun, Eric.; National Bureau of Economic Research.
Series: NBER working paper series -- working paper 15574; Working paper series (National Bureau of Economic Research : Online) -- working paper no. 15574.
Publisher: National Bureau of Economic Research
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Cambridge, MA
Language: eng
Format: Electronic resource
Description: "The NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health provides summaries of publications like this.  You can sign up to receive the NBER Bulletin on Aging and Health by email.  For decades, the US public and private sectors have committed substantial resources towards cancer research, but the societal payoff has not been well-understood.  We quantify the value of recent gains in cancer survival, and analyze the distribution of value among various stakeholders.  Between 1988 and 2000, life expectancy for cancer patients increased by roughly four years, and the average willingness-to-pay for these survival gains was roughly $322,000.  Improvements in cancer survival during this period created 23 million additional life-years and roughly $1.9 trillion of additional social value, implying that the average life-year was worth approximately $82,000 to its recipient.  Health care providers and pharmaceutical companies appropriated 5-19% of this total, with the rest accruing to patients.  The share of value flowing to patients has been rising over time.  These calculations suggest that from the patient's point of view, the rate of return to R&D investments against cancer has been substantial"--National Bureau of Economic Research web site.
Notes: Title from PDF file as viewed on 12/28/2009.

Includes bibliographical references.

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Mode of access: World Wide Web.