US spends more on cancer care, saves fewer lives than Western Europe

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-03/tgso-usm030215.php

Public Release: 2-Mar-2015
The Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Despite sharp increases in spending on cancer treatment, cancer mortality rates in the United States have decreased only modestly since 1970, Samir Soneji, PhD of Dartmouth's Norris Cotton Cancer Center and The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy & Clinical Practice has found. Refuting previous studies, Soneji published his paper "New Analysis Reexamines the Value of Cancer Care in the United States Compared to Western Europe," today in the March issue of Health Affairs.

"Our results suggest that cancer care in the U.S. did not always avert deaths compared to Western Europe and, when it did avert deaths, it often did so at substantial cost," explained Soneji. "The greatest number of deaths averted occurred in cancers for which decreasing mortality rates were more likely to be the result of successful prevention and screening rather than advancements in treatment."

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