During Covid-19, a great deal of rethinking of economics was underway across the globe. The invited essay for Cancer Control 2021, heralds a conversation between different disciplines and professionals. Like many complex problems, cancer needs new economic approaches which take seriously a nation’s industrial foundations and its gaps in regulation. This evolutionary, institutional economics structures and frames the evolution of the phenomenon of cancer and the dynamic response of the technological capabilities and industrial features needed to produce diagnostics, radiation therapy, and medicines. The invited essay published in Cancer Control 2021 provides practical challenges and perspective on what can be done. This is a step toward cross-disciplinary dialogue of how new insights can be brought to complex social issues.
The “War” metaphor and its existing economics are faulty. Given that the biological underpinnings of cancer continue to be imprecise (‘cancer’ is over 200 different biological processes) and its clinical response somewhat scattered, there can be no “War on Cancer” as a linear effort. Instead, an essential and urgent institutional economics can address both the innovation and regulation needed to reduce the number of cancer patients and quickly respond to those needing treatment and rehabilitation.