The Cancer Industry and the True Cost of Treatment

How cancer treatment and related medical costs form the backbone of a thriving industry, and a look at the true cost of finding a cure.

By S. Lochlann Jain 
October 2013

In the past 50 years, the cancer industry has emerged as a multi-billion dollar giant. While not many critics complain that too much money is spent on research and treatment, even fewer point out how much business cancer patients bring in.


Photo By Fotolia/Shirophoto

Malignant (University of California Press, 2013) explores the multitude of ways in which cancer affects our everyday lives, whether we are aware of it or not. Author S. Lochlann Jain, a professor of anthropology and a survivor herself, probes cancer as a set of relationships: economic, medical, personal, ethical, institutional, and statistical. In this except from the introduction, the economic footprint of the “Cancer Industry” is explored.