Disability percentages for cancer –
and why there is no single number

“How many percent do you get for cancer?” is the first question people ask — and it has no answer, because the Regulations are not built that way.

Unlike back pain, which has a section of its own with a table of percentages, cancer has no percentage of its own. The section that is supposed to deal with tumours is one of the shortest in the whole Schedule of Impairments — it is a single sentence, and it points somewhere else entirely.

Section 21 — the whole section

That is it. No sub-sections, no table, no distinction between types of tumour or between stages of disease.

The practical meaning: the committee does not rate the diagnosis. It rates what remains — an organ that was removed, functioning that declined, a system damaged by the treatment. Two people with exactly the same diagnosis can receive percentages very far apart, not out of inconsistency but because something different was measured in each case.

Three examples that show how it works

Breast removal — the one section with a fixed percentage

Section 28 is the exception: it does give an explicit percentage, and it is the only one in the Schedule derived from age.

And at the end of the section it says expressly: “for the purposes of this section the disability percentage shall be determined according to the age of the injured woman on the day the impairment arose” — that is, by her age at the time of the removal, not the age at which she sits before the committee.

Lung removal — the percentage falls over time, then returns to function

This is the cleanest illustration of the principle: even the removal of an entire lung does not remain “a percentage for lung cancer”. After three months it goes back to being a question of lung function measured in the laboratory.

Other organs — by what was removed

The section that was deleted — and what it teaches

Until 2016 the Schedule contained item 1(3) — malignant lymphoma, which gave 50% in remission and 100% in an acute state. In the 2016 amendment that item was deleted.

Since then, lymphoma has been assessed like any other tumour — through Section 21, that is, by the impairment that remains. This is not an arbitrary tightening but an expression of the same direction of travel: the legislator is moving the determination away from the diagnosis and towards functioning.

What did keep a detailed table is Section 2 — blood diseases, where conditions such as chronic anaemia are measured by haemoglobin levels and dependence on blood transfusions (0% to 100%), along with thrombocytopenia, neutropenia and myelofibrosis. Anyone dealing with a haematological illness or with prolonged effects of chemotherapy will find the percentages there.

The asterisks in the tables — a detail many people miss

The Appendix to the Regulations contains a short note that determines something substantial:

For example: all the breast removal items in Section 28 are marked **. That means the percentages there count for work-injury disability, but not for the special services allowance. This explains situations that look contradictory — a percentage determined on one route that is not counted on another.

Source: The Schedule of Impairments, in the Appendix to the National Insurance Regulations (Determination of Degree of Disability for Work Injuries), 5716–1956, as it appears in the National Insurance Institute’s Disability Tests book. The full Disability Tests book (Hebrew). The quotations are reproduced for information only. The actual determination is made by the medical committee alone, and the Regulations are updated from time to time. The Regulations are enacted in Hebrew and the Hebrew text is the only binding version; the English here is our working translation, and section numbers and percentages are given exactly as they appear in the original.

What your file should contain

Because the percentage derives from the impairment and not from the diagnosis, the documentation needs to cover every system that was affected, separately:

• Hospitalisation and surgical summaries — exactly what was removed and to what extent
• The oncological treatment protocol: chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biological or hormonal treatment
• Documentation of lasting side effects — neuropathy, lymphoedema, chronic fatigue, cognitive decline
• Relevant function tests: lung function, kidney function, blood counts over time
• Follow-up after the treatment — not only documents from the acute period
• Mental health documentation if it exists — anxiety and depression following illness are assessed separately under Section 34

The common gap: the file is full of documents about the illness itself, and almost empty of documents about what it left behind. It is precisely that second part the committee rates.

How we help

At Yad Otefet we help you get ready for the committee: working out which sections are relevant to your condition as it is documented today, finding the gap between the symptoms and what the file actually says, and helping you prepare the documents. We do not appear before committees in your place and we do not give medical or legal advice — the determination is the committee’s alone.