OBJECTIVES: We previously reported that indirect costs of absenteeism in the workplace owing to cancer are almost twice as high as the estimated direct costs of cancer treatment in Poland. Although approximately 60% of the absenteeism costs were caused by premature mortality, to gain a full understanding of the indirect costs of lost productivity the presenteeism in the workplace must be analyzed. METHODS: Survey on a population of about 300 economically active patients (score 80 or above on Karnofsky performance scale) with cancer was planned at 10 regional oncology centers in Poland. To assess the impact of health on productivity a modified questionnaire WPAI-SHP was used. Due to the considerable heterogeneity of the study group and given the limited number of respondents we have refrained from collecting data on clinical characteristics of the disease. Human capital approach was used to estimate the presenteeism costs. Values are presented in Euro (exchange rate: 1 EUR=4.20 PLN). RESULTS: Data on 299 patients were collected. The mean age of surveyed patients was 51 years and the average declared weekly work time was 41 hours. The average time of the absence from work due to cancer in the study population was 7.6±9.9 hours. The estimated average loss of productivity in the workplace was 37.3%, corresponding to 10.3±8.5 loss of hours of work. When projected on total economically active population with cancer, the estimated indirect costs associated with the presenteeism amounted to about 363 million EUR and were significantly lower than the previously estimated costs of sickness absence (1,572 million EUR). CONCLUSIONS: The analysis showed that the loss of productivity associated with the presenteeism among cancer patients has important implications for the Polish economy but less pronounced than costs of absenteeism in the workplace. This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education grant no. N N405 115034