Cancer is the defining health issue of our time. Beyond the enormous emotional and physical toll for patients and families, cancer has also important economic implications. With cancer cases growing and budgets tightening, there is a pressing need to prioritise resources and transform cancer outcomes through investment in prevention, early detection and research.
Our work sheds light on the wider economic and societal impact of cancer beyond the human cost of pain and suffering. These include healthcare costs, other non-medical costs like travel costs, informal care borne by people affected by cancer and their families and costs related to reduced paid and unpaid work, usually referred to as productivity losses.
This publication analyses ONS data on the labour-market impacts of hospital-recorded cancer diagnoses in England. It provides evidence on how the impact on employee earnings varies by cancer site.
Read the report in full here(PDF, 462 KB) July 2026
This study estimates the years of life lost due to cancer in the UK in 2023, and calculates the resulting expected loss in cost for future labour productivity.
Learn more about our Economic Losses due to Cancer Mortality analysis(PDF, 1.17 MB) June 2025
The evidence on the wide-ranging economic impact of cancer is summarised in a report developed with the University of Leeds identifting important evidence gaps – including how costs vary by age, socio-economic status, ethnicity and cancer stage.
Read the cost of cancer in the UK report(PDF, 2.01 MB) November 2024
Health is wealth: tackling cancer to grow the economy June 2025
The cost of cancer: what does it mean for the UK economy? November 2024
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