In William MacAskill’s Lunch with the FT (Life & Arts, September 10) he comments that the benefits of curing cancer “are smaller than one might think” and only achieve a net increase of two years in global life expectancy.

In the US, spending on cancer healthcare was $161.2bn in 2017. In addition, there was $30.3bn in productivity loss from morbidity and $150.7bn in premature mortality.

The economic burden of cancer is thus equivalent to approximately 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product. Some would say that losing 1.8 per cent of your economy is an indicator of an imminent downturn. Thus, it can be fairly stated that the negative portents arising from not curing cancer are at least as ominous as the warnings preceding an economic downturn.

MacAskill’s use of “when compared with” arguments, while provocative and good for quotes, on closer examination do not to stand up to scrutiny.

The positive impacts on society — economic, social, physical, and psychological — of a cancer cure are inestimable, making MacAskill’s prima facie statistics moot.

Franco Vitaliano
President & Chief Executive
ExQor Technologies
Boston, MA, US