The National Institutes of Health estimated the overall annual costs for cancer in 2010 at $263.8 billion. This includes $102.8 billion in direct medical costs, $20.9 billion in indirect morbidity costs (cost of lost productivity due to illness) and $140.1 billion for indirect mortality costs (cost of lost productivity from premature death). Source: Cancer Facts & Figures, American Cancer Society, 2010 [April 2012, 731 word article]