CANCER RESEARCH
Saves Lives & Fuels Economic Prosperity
Download a handout in PDF [Adobe Acrobat Reader required]
Cancer, a collection of more than 200 complex diseases, is one of our nation’s most daunting public health challenges. Over the next two decades, the number of annual cancer cases is expected to soar from 1.6 million to 2.3 million—a 45 percent increase. With greater investment in cancer research today, we can confront this health crisis head-on, while reducing medical costs, strengthening our economy, creating jobs and bolstering our global competitiveness.
CANCER RESEARCH SAVES LIVES
- Investment in research through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) drives new and better ways to prevent, detect and treat cancer.
- The five-year survival rate for all adult cancers combined is 68 percent; an increase of 18 percent since 1975. (NCI)
- During the past 30 years, 153 new FDA-approved medical advances were discovered through research carried out in a federally funded lab or institution. Forty of those innovations were new therapies for cancer. (Stevens, A.J., et al.)
PROGRESS AGAINST CANCER WILL YIELD DRAMATIC SAVINGS
- In 2007, the overall costs of cancer were $226.8 billion (American Cancer Society):
- $103.8 billion for direct medical costs (total of all health expenditures); and
- $123 billion for indirect mortality costs (lost productivity due to premature death).
- A 10 percent reduction in cancer deaths would be worth $4.7 trillion in social value – the value of reduced mortality and increased quality of life. (Murphy, K.M. and Topel, R.H.)
INVESTMENT IN NIH RESEARCH CREATES JOBS & ECONOMIC GROWTH
- NIH is the nation’s premier medical research agency and supports research across the U.S.
- More than 80 percent of NIH funding supports research in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. This research is conducted by 325,000 scientists at more than 3,000 institutions. (NIH)
- In 2010, federal investment in NIH research had a 150 percent multiplier effect on the economy—leading to the creation of 487,900 jobs and generating $68 billion in new economic activity across the country. (United for Medical Research)
- The $3.8 billion the U.S. government invested in the Human Genome Project from 1988 to 2003 helped drive $796 billion in economic impact and the generation of $244 billion in total personal income. (Battelle)
- In 2010 alone, the human genome sequencing projects and associated genomics research and industry activity directly and indirectly generated $67 billion in U.S. economic output and supported 310,000 jobs that produced $20 billion in personal income. (Battelle)
Resources:
Top