Cancer: The Costs, Causes, and Cures Cancer is a major killer of people all around the globe. We do not have a definite cure, but the amount of research done on this one disease costs on the average of $1.2 billion dollars annually, and $20 billion annually in care of cancer patients. What is Cancer? Cancer is a broad ranging term that is used by many people, including medical professionals such as doctors. Cancer, in its most fatal and aggressive form, is of a larger class of diseases known as neoplasms. There are two forms of a neoplasm: benign or malignant. A benign neoplasm is encapsulated, or surrounded, so that it's growth is restricted,