Sachindra Sanam Venkata, Anas Katib, Deendayal Dinakarpandian

Cancer research receives billions of dollars every year, but how much research effort does each cancer receive? In this study, we correlate research effort to the disease burden of four urologic cancers to find if there are disparities in research effort directed towards different cancers. Bladder, prostate, testicular, and kidney cancers differ in incidence, survival, and mortality, providing a pilot into all cancers. We explore three perspectives to quantify research effort: NIH funding, publications, and clinical trials. We define burden at the population level (years of life lost), individual level (years of life lost per diagnosed patient), and years of potential life lost. Prior studies have looked at population level disease burden, but doing so may overlook the individual burden carried by diagnosed patients of a specific cancer. We collected 2019 data via PubMed®, NIH RePORTER, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Global Burden of Disease Study.

As a result of this study, we found that research effort positively correlates to the population level burden of each cancer. In order from least burdensome cancer to most, these are testicular, bladder, kidney, and prostate. However, we find that kidney and bladder cancers have the highest individual burdens. A kidney or bladder cancer patient also has similar years of potential life lost as a prostate cancer patient. But research effort is far higher in prostate cancer. This suggests a high proportion of people diagnosed with kidney or bladder cancer are dying than in other urologic cancers, and more research is needed on these cancers. Although testicular cancer has high years of potential life lost, it has a low population and individual burden, perhaps due to existing treatments and high survival rate. Altogether, these data suggest research effort needs equitable expansion to other cancers and a renewed look at where cancer research funds go.