The European Union spent 126 billion euros ($171 billion) on cancer costs in 2009, according to a study by U.K. researchers that may help officials choose where to spend to fight disease.
Health care accounted for 51 billion euros, or about 40 percent, of the spending, they wrote in the journal Lancet Oncology. Drugs accounted for 13.6 billion euros of the medical costs. Other expenses stemmed from care and lost productivity, according to the study funded by New York-based drugmaker Pfizer Inc.
