Quantifying the macroeconomic impact of tracheal, bronchial, and lung cancers (lung cancer) is crucial for guiding resource allocation, given rising global incidence, aging populations, and constraints in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This study evaluated the global, regional, and national macroeconomic burden of lung cancer in 2021. Disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) data came from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 study. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, adjusted for Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), were sourced from the World Bank. The macroeconomic burden was estimated using the Value of Lost Welfare (VLW) approach, integrating DALYs with the Value of Statistical Life (VSL) extrapolated from US data, assuming income elasticity (IE) of 1.0. Results are in 2021 international dollars (USD), PPP-adjusted. Globally, lung cancer caused a VLW of United States Dollars (USD) 167.36 billion (0.17% of global GDP). Males bore a higher burden (USD 107.85 billion, 0.11% GDP) than females (USD 59.52 billion, 0.06% GDP). The VLW/GDP ratio was highest in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Oceania (USD 54.82 billion, 2.62% regional GDP). Tobacco was the leading risk factor, contributing 105.2 billion USD (63%) of global VLW, followed by air pollution (22.9 billion) and occupational risks (27.6 billion). This quantitative analysis demonstrates that lung cancers impose a significant global macroeconomic burden, with pronounced disparities across sexes (disproportionately affecting males) and geographic regions. These findings underscore the imperative to prioritize evidence-based interventions-particularly tobacco control in high-burden areas-to optimize resource allocation and improve patient prognosis worldwide.Key limitations include reliance on model-based VSL estimates (extrapolated from U.S. data) and the assumption of constant income elasticity (IE = 1.0); generalizability may be constrained by cross-country variations in willingness-to-pay and data availability, particularly in LMICs.
Liu et al. (Mon,) studied this question.