Skin Cancer Treatment Costs Skyrocket

The costs associated with skin cancer increased five times as fast as treatments for other cancers between 2002 and 2011, according to a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) study published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to the report, the average annual cost for skin cancer treatment increased from $3.6 billion during 2002-2006 to $8.1 billion during 2007-2011, an increase in costs of 126%. Meanwhile, during that time, the average annual cost for treatment of all other cancers increased 25%.

“The findings raise the alarm that not only is skin cancer a growing problem in the United States, but the costs for treating it are skyrocketing relative to other cancers, said the lead author of the report, Gery Guy, Ph.D., of the CDC’s division of cancer prevention and control. “This also underscores the importance of skin cancer prevention efforts.”

The report studied skin cancer data on adults between 2002 and 2011 using the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey. The researchers created two five-year periods of data from 2002-2006 and 2007-2011 to allow for a comparison over time and to improve the precision of the estimates. The average annual number of adults treated for skin cancer increased from 3.4 million in 2002-2006 to 4.9 million in 2007-2011.

Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the US; nearly five million people are treated for skin cancer every year. Most cases of melanoma, the deadliest kind of skin cancer, are caused by exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light.