CDC and others have come out with an interesting study on costs related to cancer. The study was published in Cancer, the American Cancer Society's medical journal and you can read about it here. In a nutshell, the study found that the cost of treating cancer has nearly doubled over the past two decades, and that these rising costs are mainly driven by prevalence. It also found that cancer accounts for only 5 percent of total U.S. medical costs, which has not changed in the last few decades. As I mention in the piece, this phenomenon is partly the result of better and more advanced treatments which are helping cancer patients live longer-- so the increases in spending represent money well spent. It's also due to an aging population, resulting in more cancer cases even as incidence rates are falling.