The authors speculated that stigmatized behaviors that are strongly associated with certain underfunded cancers — like smoking and lung cancer or alcohol and liver cancer — make raising money for those cancers more difficult . On the flip side , some of the most well-funded cancer types ( breast cancer , leukemia , lymphoma , and pediatric cancers ) have no association with stigmatized behaviors .
“ The goal of our study was not to divert funding away from any disease but rather to educate the public and augment charitable funding for diseases that do not receive proportionate support . Well-funded [ nonprofit organizations ] should be applauded for their successes and could collaborate with other organizations to improve funding ,” the authors concluded .
‘ A considerable mismatch ’
Nonprofits aren ’ t the only source of funds for cancer research , though . The federal government contributes quite a bit , too . ( Your tax dollars at work !) But as with nonprofits , government funding favors some cancers over others when death or other factors are taken into account .
A study that compared amounts of research funding from the National Cancer Institute to different metrics of “ cancer burden ”— including incidence , mortality , and YLL — also revealed “ a considerable mismatch between funding levels and burden ,” the authors wrote .
“ Some cancers are funded at levels far higher than their relative burden suggests ( breast cancer , prostate cancer , and leukemia ) while other cancers appear underfunded ( bladder , esophageal , liver , oral , pancreatic , stomach , and uterine cancers ),” they concluded .
These researchers looked at ratios of cancer funding relative to the different metrics of cancer burden . Looking at mortality alone , brain / CNS , breast , cervical , leukemia , and testicular cancers appeared to be overfunded . At the same time , bladder , esophageal , lung , oral , stomach , and uterine cancers were the most consistently underfunded across the different metrics .
Of course , there are different ways to evaluate cancer burden . When looking at incidence , breast cancer has the greatest burden , with an estimated 271,270 new cases in 2019 , according to NCI data . When looking at YLL , lung cancer is far and away the greatest with 2,372,000 YLL ( even when compared with the second highest : colorectal cancer with 800,000 YLL ). In terms of mortality , lung cancer has the greatest burden with 142,670 deaths last year , as we ’ ve discussed .
“ In absolute terms , lung cancer accounts for 32 % of cancer deaths while receiving 10 % of cancer research funding ,” the researchers noted . But why might this be ?
“ Funding for lung cancer is quite low given its cost , mainly due to a ‘ blame the victim ’ attitude in which the personal choice to smoke is seen as the direct cause ,” they contended . “ The levels of funding for liver cancer ( 2.6 % of funding compared to 3.8 % of deaths and 3.8 % of YLL ) and oral cancer ( 0.5 % of funding compared to 1.6 % of deaths and 1.8 % of YLL ) may also be influenced by this ‘ blame the victim ’ prejudice ( Hepatitis B infection and alcoholism contribute to liver cancer risk and chewing tobacco contributes to oral cancer risk ).”
How do we fix these discrepancies ? “ We recommend redistribution from overfunded cancers to underfunded cancers to improve the effectiveness of cancer research funding ,” the researchers stated .
Intuitively , that makes sense . Overfunded cancers could apportion some of their research dollars to the underfunded and more deadly cancers . But , is this really the best way to fairly allocate cancer funding ?