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Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread person-to-person, making it the world's top "economic killer" according to the the American Cancer Society. A new report in Time magazine says that cancer is the world's most likely leading cause of death.

"Chronic diseases including cancer, heart disease and diabetes account for more than 60 percent of deaths worldwide but less than 3 percent of public and private funding for global health," said Rachel Nugent of the Center for Global Development, a Washington-based policy research group.

According to the report, cancer's economic toll was $895 billion in 2008 — equivalent to 1.5 percent of the world's gross domestic product. And that report only accounted for disability and years of life lost — not the cost of treating the disease.

About 7.6 million people died of cancer in 2008, and about 12.4 million new cases are diagnosed each year, leading the World Health Organization to predict that cancer will surpass heart disease as the leading cause of death worldwide.

"This needs to be discussed at the UN — how we are going to deal with this" rising burden of chronic disease," said Dr. Andreas Ullrich, medical officer for cancer control at WHO.

This report marks the first major effort to look at the cost of cancer on a global level. Livestrong, cancer survivor and cyclist Lance Armstrong's foundation, partnered on the report.

For more on this report, check out the article at Time.com. Learn more about surviving cancer with these guides from The Survivors Club.

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