Cancer is the world's top "economic killer", the American Cancer Society contends in a new report.
According to ACS, cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person. Chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide, but less than 3 percent of public and private funding for global health.
Yahoo News reports:
“Cancer's economic toll was $895 billion in 2008 — equivalent to 1.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product, the report says. That's in terms of disability and years of life lost — not the cost of treating the disease, which wasn't addressed in the report.”