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The economic burden of cancer to a country is shown in this example
of a study done in the USA to estimate direct and indirect costs for
1977. Direct cancer care costs were estimated at US $7 billion with
corresponding indirect costs of US $ 15 billion, for a total in that
year of US $22 billion or nearly $100 per capita. Direct costs for
hospitals, health care services and drugs can be estimated reasonably
easily where one has information about what services and how much of
them are provided to cancer patients. Indirect costs arise from lost
productivity following on illness and premature death. They are more
difficult to estimate since they require assumptions about expected
future earnings and a discount rate to convert these back to current
dollar value. In the study cited a discount rate of 10% was used.
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