Medical costs for cancer treatment exceeded 10 trillion won ($7.5 billion) for the first time in Korea last year.
According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) analysis of malignant neoplasm treatment status over the past five years, the number of cancer increased by 18.1 percent from 1,651,898 in 2019 to 1,950,925 in 2023, recording an annual average growth rate of 4.2 percent.
However, compared to the increase in the number of cancer patients, medical expenses increased more significantly. During the period, the medical cost for cancer patients increased 37.7 percent (an annual average growth rate of 8.3 percent) from 7.37 trillion won to 10.15 trillion won, which is about twice as high as the increase in cancer patients.
The per capita cost of cancer treatment also exceeded 5 million won. Last year, medical expenses per cancer patient amounted to 5.2 million won, up 16.6 percent from 2019.
By age group, men in their 80s and older showed the highest share of cancer patients per population, with 14.17 percent and 115,905 patients, followed by 12.77 percent (232,222 patients) in their 70s and 6.93 percent (260,307 patients) in their 60s. (Despite the highest percentage, the number of patients was smaller in the 80s group, reflecting their relatively smaller total population. )
Women were most likely to be in their 60s, with 7.76 percent (300,817), followed by 7.74 percent (166,199) in their 70s and 6.92 percent (298,390) in their 50s.
Thyroid cancer accounted for the largest number of cancer visits last year, with 408,770, followed by breast cancer (299,340) and colorectal cancer (182,606). The cancers with the largest increase in patients over the past five years were prostate cancer (39.6 percent), skin cancer (36.9 percent), and pancreatic cancer (34.6 percent).
"The five-year relative survival rate trend for major cancers shows that the survival rate for all cancers from 2017 to 2021 was 72.1 percent," said Ham Myung-il, director of the Health Insurance Assessment Policy Institute. “Prevention is important due to the high disease burden of malignant neoplasms.”