Researchers and clinicians have made remarkable progress in the fight against cancer, and death rates are falling. However, the disease still causes enormous suffering and represents a substantial economic burden in the United States.
While cancer medicines have extended millions of lives and offer trillions in societal benefits, this value often is not well understood or fully characterized.
Social and economic benefits accrue across a range of direct and indirect effects (e.g., overall survival, quality of life, and productivity) and evolve over time as the body of evidence and standards of practice change. As our understanding of the basic science of cancer grows, and this understanding is translated into novel diagnostics and treatments, patients and society benefit from continual innovation in cancer care.
The purpose of this grant program is to encourage research aimed at quantifying the benefits to society that have accrued from innovations in cancer treatment.
Two awards were recently awarded in this program:
Awardees
Dr. Jennifer Lund, UNC Chapel Hill
- Examines the comparative benefits and risks of colon cancer treatment among patients who have other co-morbid conditions (COPD, chronic heart failure, and/or diabetes) and are at varying stages of the disease, as well as assessing how the disease has progressed. This research will also provide insight on personalized approaches to treating this devastating disease.
- Abstract
Dr. James Yu, Yale University
- Examines the population level benefits of modern treatment for patients with breast, prostate, and lung cancer using the National Cancer Institute’s SEER database. Provides insight on how, as new therapies are introduced, patients’ quality of life changes in-step with changing survival times.
- Abstract
