One third of cancer-related fundraising pages on the GoFundMe crowdfunding platform in the U.S. describe significant financial hardships related to medical expenses and health-related social needs such as loss of income, according to a new study.
The research used Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze cancer-related fundraising pages publicly available on GoFundMe over 29 months in 2021 to 2023. Using Open AI’s ChatGPT 35 natural language processing, the researchers were able to analyze the reasons given in the stories for asking for financial assistance and turn these stories into data for statistical analysis.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association Oncology and led by researchers from the American Cancer Society. The research found that many individuals facing cancer have to rely on personal crowdfunding to meet financial demands.
“Sadly, financial hardship is common among cancer survivors across the country, forcing a growing number of patients and their families to use personal crowdfunding as an alternative source to raise money,” said Dr. Zhiyuan “Jason” Zheng, lead author of the study and a senior scientist in health services research at the American Cancer Society.
The analysis looked at over 90,000 crowdfunding campaigns, together comprising over 24 million words for analysis. The AI analysis was able to identify various information in the campaign pages including type of cancer in 4 of 5 pages and details of cancer treatments in over half. Over a quarter of pages mentioned financial hardship due to medical expenses and a quarter mentioned factors like loss of employment income, lack of sick leave, food insecurity, or no suitable transportation for medical appointments. 1 in 5 people reported unemployment. Only 11% of the pages recorded met their fundraising goals.
“These findings show the intense difficulties in meeting basic medical and social needs, underscoring the fragility of safety nets in the U.S,” said Zheng.
People with cancer commonly experience “financial toxicity” due to their cancer, treatments and often needing to take time off work. According to the National Cancer Institute, cancer is one of the “most expensive medical conditions to treat in the United States” and people with cancer with health insurance pay higher premiums, co-payments, deductibles and coinsurance. There is some evidence suggesting that people with cancer who experience financial toxicity have poorer quality of life and even survival than people with cancer who are financially secure.
New innovations in treatments such as targeted drugs and immunotherapies have increased survival from many types of cancer, but often come with significant costs, which can be much higher than conventional chemotherapy treatments. Additionally, people who survive cancer often experience long-term side effects of their treatments, meaning that they often need to pay for medical care for years, or even decades after their original treatments.
GoFundMe is the most popular online crowdfunding platform in the world, having raised $30 billion since 2o10.
