Cancer Elimination as High‑Return R&D

A new NBER working paper monetizes the longevity gains from eliminating cancer and finds aggregate benefits on the order of $197 trillion over 35 years (≈$16,282 per American per year), implying internal rates of return on R&D of several hundred to over a thousand percent. Even partial success (an 80% reduction over 20 years) captures a large fraction of that value, suggesting enormous social returns to ambitious cancer research programs. — If correct, policymakers should treat ambitious cancer research and translational programs as priority public investments with returns that dramatically exceed typical R&D benchmarks.