Money Troubles Can Delay Cancer Diagnoses For Many Americans

Money woes have long been linked to worse health care. Now, a new study finds financially strapped patients often put off cancer screenings — only to learn they have the disease when it’s advanced and tougher to treat.

Researchers studied the financial background of nearly 102,000 patients diagnosed with cancer between 2014 and 2015. More than a third had previously experienced at least one major money crisis — such as bankruptcy or eviction. And those people were more likely to be identified with later-stage cancer than those without financial upheaval.

Later-stage disease meant stage 3 or stage 4 cancer.

“These findings are clinically relevant because survival following a cancer diagnosis is generally better for people diagnosed with earlier-stage disease compared with people diagnosed with later-stage disease,” said study author Robin Yabroff, scientific vice president of health services research with the American Cancer Society.

“People who are financially vulnerable may be delaying or forgoing health care because they cannot afford it,” she added.

Yabroff said much is known about the financial hardships that follow a cancer diagnosis, but researchers haven’t studied the effects of financial upheaval prior to diagnosis.

She and her colleagues focused on a pool of newly diagnosed cancer patients residing in Seattle, Louisiana and Georgia. They were 21 to 69 years old.

Investigators reviewed consumer data compiled by LexisNexis, which revealed all financial “events” that had taken place in a courtroom setting, including liens, bankruptcies and evictions.