Cancer's Hidden Cost Burden Strains Patients and Health Systems: Report

The cost of cancer may be higher than previously estimated, according to a recent report from the American Cancer Society.

In its 2025 Cancer Facts & Figures report, the ACS provided updated data on cancer incidence, survival rates and risk factors. It also touched on the high cost associated with a cancer diagnosis.

The most recent data from the National Cancer Institute estimated that cancer-related medical costs reached $208.9 billion in 2020. But this was likely an underestimate since it does not account for the rising cost of treatment, according to the ACS.

Patients pay approximately $21.1 billion per year in cancer-related costs, according to the ACS report. Nearly $5 billion of that figure is estimated as "patient time costs"—including travel expenses to and from treatment and the work hours lost while waiting for and receiving care.

These rising expenses prove challenging for both doctors and patients—especially with the median annual cost for a course of an oncology drug reaching $196,000, according to Dr. Rebecca Miksad, chief medical officer of Color Health, a virtual cancer clinic that partners with the ACS. Miksad also serves patients as an attending physician and associate professor of medicine at the Boston University School of Medicine.

"As a medical oncologist, these high costs are hard to explain to my patients who may be worried about their heat being cut off if they spend their limited budget to take the bus to the clinic," Miksad told Newsweek.

Why Is Cancer Treatment So Expensive?

Over the past two decades, cancer treatments have become savvier—and, consequentially, more expensive. Cancer drug development is a long and costly process, according to Miksad. Cutting-edge medications, like targeted therapies, immunologics and biologics, are especially complicated to manufacture.

Still, high costs of cancer drugs have been an ongoing debate in the medical community, Miksad said. Many of these drugs are cheaper in other countries. The discrepancy is especially evident in price increases on existing brand-name cancer drugs. Between 2012 and 2017, the U.S. spent $6.8 billion due to rising costs of these drugs, according to a 2020 study published in the Blood Cancer Journal. Meanwhile, prices for similar drugs were decreasing around the world—other countries spent $1.7 billion less during the same time period.

Drug prices aren't the only considerations for cancer patients. They also have to account for deductibles, copays, travel costs for treatments and access to specialized nutrition and mental health care that may not be covered by insurance.

Insurance coverage is a significant determinant of cancer's cost to patients, according to Michael Heimall, CEO of the HealthWell Foundation—a nonprofit that provides financial support to underinsured patients and serves as a resource to the White House Cancer Moonshot Initiative. Commercially insured 18- to 64-year-old cancer patients often bear larger financial burdens than Medicare patients.

"With the increases in rates we're seeing in commercially insured populations, and some of the shifts of the burden from the insurance company to the patient—such as increased copays and high-deductible health plans—the 18- to 64-year-old population experiencing far more financial toxicity because of cancer is a trend that needs to be monitored closely," Heimall told Newsweek.

HealthWell has seen exponential demand for financial assistance across nearly every fund, "year over year, month over month," Heimall said. Last year, the foundation was averaging 400 to 500 calls a day to its contact center. Right now, it's receiving about 5,900 phone calls a day.

Both Heimall and Miksad noted that financial strain can lead to adverse health outcomes in an already vulnerable patient population.

"At least once a year, I have to admit a patient to the hospital for fluids because they were not able to afford the copay for their nausea medications," Miksad said.

How Are Health Systems Affected?

Cancer costs can also significantly impact a hospital's finances, according to Heimall, a former hospital CEO and member of the D.C. Hospital Association Board of Directors.

"The cost of uncompensated care is always a significant challenge," Heimall said, "and a big part of that is not just trauma patients, or underserved patients, or maternal fetal health—but also cancer diagnosis."

Urban medical centers in underserved areas bear the brunt of the burden, according to Heimall. Minority populations that live in these areas are more likely to be financially challenged and less likely to have easy access to preventative health care. Cancer incidence is also higher in certain racial minority populations—for example, the cancer mortality rate in Black men is 16 percent higher than in white men, and Hispanic people are almost twice as likely to acquire stomach or liver cancer than white people.

"You see a lot more underserved, financially challenged minority populations who are not getting access to good health care or good preventative screening get diagnosed with expensive cancers in a later stage," Heimall said, "which makes them more expensive to treat."

However, oncology programs provide financial benefits to some hospitals—especially larger academic centers with strong cancer programs and multiple specialties.

"Oncology revenue often supports non-revenue-generating components of cancer care as well as subsidizes other hospital services for which reimbursement is low," like pediatric subspecialties or infectious disease, Miksad said.

Are There Opportunities to Lower the Cost of Cancer?

Expanding Medicaid and reducing the cost-sharing burden on patients could help to lower the cost of a cancer diagnosis, Miksad suggested. Advocating for price regulation and transparency could also help patients weather costs.

Miksad also recommends promoting the use of biosimilar and generic medications when treating cancer. Cancer patients saved $13.6 billion by using biosimilar and genetic medications in 2019, according to the most recent report from the Association for Accessible Medicines.

Telehealth has been the biggest value for patient-time cost savings, Miksad said. Telehealth saves cancer patients between $147 and $186 per visit by cutting back on transportation costs and lost income, according to a 2023 study published in JAMA Network Open.

By investing in remote health care offerings, like telehealth and hospital-at-home programs, along with transportation assistance, health systems can do their part in bringing down the cost of cancer.

"When faced with a cancer diagnosis," Miksad said, "every minute saved is precious to patients and their families."