Liam Rose, Ganesh Rajasekar, Anjali Nambiar, et al. JAMA Netw Open. 2025 Jul 1;8(7):e2521575
Cancer imposes a substantial economic burden on patients that may be worse in patients with higher-stage disease due to the need for more therapy. The cohort consisted of 46,158 patients (mean age at diagnosis, 46 years; 30,733 female [66.6%]; 2543 Asian [5.5%], 4114 Black [8.9%], 3590 Hispanic [7.8%], and 31 099 White [67.4%]), including 19,656 patients with cancer and 26,502 patients without cancer in the control group. Among patients with cancer, 14 581 patients had breast cancer, 2842 patients had colorectal cancer, and 2233 patients had lung cancer. An incident cancer diagnosis was associated with a mean increase in out-of-pocket costs (OOPCs) of $592.53 per month for the 6 months after the diagnosis. Cost monotonically increased with stage at diagnosis (mean OOPC increase range, $462.01 per month for stage 0 to $719.97 per month for stage 4). In this study of individuals with private insurance, patients faced high OOPCs after an incident diagnosis of cancer, with patients with more advanced cancer having the highest OOPCs.
15 Apr, 2026