New Study Confirms that Employers Face a Cancer Attention Gap as Costs Surge and Precision Care Lags

Cancer is the top unmanaged risk for employers, yet other health concerns, such as GLP‑1s and mental health, receive more daily executive attention

DUARTE, Calif., July 29, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Cancer remains employers' top unmanaged cost risk, yet new analysis of two studies shows it continues to lose daily executive focus to other health concerns, such as GLP‑1s and mental health. This mismatch links to a structural benefits gap that has a significant impact on costs and patient outcomes. A survey conducted by AccessHope, a company expanding access to world-class cancer care, and Lantern, a leading specialty care platform, revealed that 94% of HR and benefits leaders believe that early expert intervention for cancer care improves outcomes and cuts costs. Yet, in a separate survey, only 6% say they use external oncology specialists for high-cost treatment decisions.

In their new report, The Cancer Attention Gap, AccessHope and Lantern shared results of their cancer cost and benefits design surveys of 240 human resources leaders at self-funded employers, across two surveys, which examined the state of cancer care benefits in the workplace. The combined analysis identified numerous gaps in cancer benefits design, from limited focus on how to holistically reduce high-cost cancer claims to underutilization of oncology experts and evidence-based care.

"Employers won't close the cancer cost gap with formulary controls or monitoring alone. Cancer costs aren't high simply because drugs are expensive, they're high because treatment decisions are often made without the subspecialty precision oncology requires," said AccessHope CEO Brad Kreick. "When the first treatment is off course, every subsequent line of therapy, hospitalization and complication amplifies the downstream impact. The path to better outcomes and more predictable costs starts with embedding subspecialty expertise early, consistently, and at scale, without asking employees to travel or change oncologists, all built on a layer of trust."

Cancer Dominates Cost, But Not Executive Attention

Cancer continues to be employers' most consequential and least‑managed cost driver, yet it often receives less executive attention than other high-profile health conditions. Nearly all surveyed employers (95%) report that three or more of their top 10 highest‑cost claimants are cancer‑related, and 62% place cancer among their top three cost drivers. Despite this, they focus more attention on trending medical concerns. For example, 94% of employers surveyed said GLP‑1s receive equal or greater executive attention, despite obesity and diabetes claimants rarely being catastrophic cost drivers.

Cancer remains the number one unmanaged risk for 52% of surveyed employers over the next three years — three times more than any other concern.

Clinical Precision: The Fastest Path to Lower Costs

The biggest levers for reducing cancer spend are dependent on clinical precision and early subspecialist involvement, but clinical research shows that only 35% of cancer patients receive proper genomic testing, and 60% of U.S. cancer care is guideline‑concordant.

Evidence-based care directly reshapes both outcomes and cost trajectories. For example, in one AccessHope case, a missed EGFR mutation led to a non‑targeted treatment plan costing $339,000 annually with a 30% two‑year survival rate. When corrected with the appropriate targeted therapy, annual costs dropped to $238,000, and two‑year survival rose to 86%. The difference illustrated in this example underscores how integrating subspecialty expertise early prevents avoidable downstream costs and delivers meaningfully better patient outcomes.

Closing the Cancer Gap Requires Action, Not Awareness

The report identifies clear, practical steps employers can take to reduce cancer spend while materially improving care quality and employee experience. The most powerful lever is clinical. Subspecialty oncology expertise is needed at the point of treatment decision to make a meaningful impact.

One-on-one support throughout the care journey matters just as much. Dedicated oncology nurse navigators can help employees overcome adherence barriers; a systematic review of 59 studies found that 71% of studies demonstrated significant improvement among patients enrolled in navigation programs, and 70% found significant improvement in treatment initiation. And employers need the ability to redirect care, not simply monitor spend, a shift that turns navigation from a passive benefit into an active cost‑ and outcome‑improving mechanism.

"As a practicing oncologist, I see how stressful it is for patients when they're forced to manage their own care during one of the most difficult times of their lives. If you're asking a patient to consider changing their treatment path or get a second opinion, you need to start from a place of trust and reach them at the right moment," said Stephen Speicher, MD, Associate Chief Medical Officer for Cancer and Specialty Infusions at Lantern. "Lantern's Care Team and oncology nurse navigators engage as early as possible and build a deeply personal relationship to become trusted guides who can help facilitate those critical treatment recommendations."

The analysis also highlights the impact of Lantern's engagement model, which delivers an employee engagement rate of up to 35% compared to an industry average below 5%, demonstrating how integrated clinical expertise and high‑touch navigation can close the gap between strategy and real‑world outcomes.

To see the full report and learn more about how to evaluate cancer benefits infrastructure, download the full report, The Cancer Attention Gap.

About AccessHope
AccessHope is a cancer care benefit that provides automatic, equitable access to leading-edge cancer expertise. Through partnerships with National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers (NCI-CCCs), AccessHope uses technology to systematically bring subspecialized expertise directly to community-based care, allowing members to receive the most advanced cancer care while continuing treatment with their local oncologist. Experts at NCI-CCCs review cancer cases to help align treatment, supportive care and clinical trial access, resulting in improved outcomes for patients and measurable value for employers and health plans. Today, AccessHope serves more than 10 million members through over 800 organizations, including more than 80 Fortune 500 companies. For more information, visit myaccesshope.org and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Lantern
Lantern is the leading Specialty Care Platform built to simplify and elevate the most complex care journeys through a unified, value-driven approach. Lantern supports 12 million members and over 1,000 employers nationwide to deliver high-quality surgical, infusion, and cancer care. Lantern's Network of Excellence is the nation's leading specialty care network built on direct contracts and bundled payments with top-tier specialists and facilities. Lantern's distributed network is the most locally accessible in the industry, leading to higher utilization and a 4% overall annual reduction in healthcare costs observed across Lantern's book of business. For more information, visit lanterncare.com. Lantern Specialty Care is the trade name of Employer Direct Healthcare, LLC.

SOURCE AccessHope