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  • NATURE INDEX

Surviving cancer at all costs

Scientists are nudging the dial on some types of cancer more than others, but it’s fair to ask whether research is delivering value for money.
By
  1. Catherine Armitage

    1. Chief editor

Some analysts are cynical about the apparent mismatch between spending and outcomes in what’s disparagingly called ‘the cancer industry’. How can cancer be the second leading cause of death globally, responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018, when a single institution (the US National Institutes of Health, NIH) spent US$24.4 billion on cancer research in the past four years, not to mention outlays by so many other funders?

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Nature 580, S1 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01035-y

This article is part of Nature Index Cancer 2020, an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

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