What makes cancer expensive?!

Best Answer - Chosen by Voters

The treatments, the hospitalizations. My course of 35 radiations was $57k. Chemo was about $60k. 3 surgeries, 3 infections requiring hospitals for I.v. antibiotics, about $100k. Plus all the dr visits, $350 each. Initial mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy. Continuing mammograms, ultrasounds, nearly $1k a pop. It adds up. The docs don't need to make $300k, the pharmaceutical companies don't need to charge so much.

Thinking time is right. In Canada, there are not many costs associated with cancer, as far as the cost of treatments go. However, many people also choose to do alternative therapies, along with the chemo, surgery or radiation. The alternative treatments can cost money. There is also the aspect of not being able to work because of the treatments. Medical EI does not even come close to my monthly salary. Also, a friend of mine, who has an aggressive stage 4 cancer, is going to the States for treatments because the chemo she needs to take is not approved for use in Canada yet. It is costing her a fortune, but the doctors think it is her best chance. She and her husband had to remortgage their house to pay for the treatment in the US.

It's only expensive in the USA, unlike other developed countries, as there is no universal health care for your citizens. In the UK and Canada there are some incidental costs like travel, but that 's all.