Cancer is world's top 'economic killer' as well as its leading cause of death, report finds
American Cancer Society researchers say that cancer is now the world's leading economic killer as well as its likely top cause of death.
Their new report says that cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, tuberculosis or other infectious diseases. Cancer's economic impact was $895 billion in 2008, not counting the cost of treating the disease.
The cancer society wants more money spent on chronic diseases. Besides cancer, those include heart disease and diabetes. The World Health Organization has predicted that cancer will pass heart disease this year as the leading cause of death.
The new cancer society report will be presented at a global cancer conference in China on Thursday.
Copyright 2010 AP News
