Facts: Cancer in numbers
190 people. About that many people get cancer every day in Sweden.
23 women receive a breast cancer message every day.
1,300 women die of breast cancer every year. At the same time, survival increases.
73 percent for men and 72 percent for women. It is the average survival divided by gender.
Men have historically had a lower survival rate in cancer than women. Today they have caught up and survival is basically the same overall for both sexes.
72 years. That is the median age at a cancer diagnosis.
Source: Cancer Foundation
The older the population gets, the more people develop cancer. It is one of the explanations why more and more people are affected by some form of cancer. At the same time, research is progressing and survival is increasing. Since 2018, the overall ten-year survival rate among those affected has increased from 69 to 72 percent.
“It looks different for different forms of cancer, but among the most common forms of breast, prostate and skin cancer, more and more are surviving,” says Ulrika Årehed Kågström, secretary general at the Cancer Foundation.
Screening such as mammography has contributed to more cases of cancer being detected and treated. Archive image. Long-term impact
With early detection and treatment, many can either be cured or live with a cancer disease. Statistics from the Cancer Fund and the National Board of Health and Welfare show that around 600,000 people have or have had a cancer diagnosis today. This often means that life is affected in several ways such as side effects of treatment, pain, limited mobility or negative impact on sex life.
— It’s about the same number of people who live in all of Gothenburg and there will be more. That these can have a good life and return to working life and leisure interests to the extent they wish is extremely important. Today, many feel abandoned when the treatment is over, says Ulrika Årehed Kågström.
Breast cancer and skin cancer are two areas where development has made significant progress. 50 years ago, the ten-year survival rate in breast cancer was just over 50 percent, today it is 90. For skin cancer, it has gone from 60 to 90 percent. Progress has also been good for prostate cancer.
72 years at diagnosis
For other cancers, the picture is more bleak. Pancreatic cancer still has one of the lowest rates with less than 10 percent living without the cancer after ten years. There are several explanations for this, one of the most important is that the cancer is deep in the abdomen and the tumor often has time to grow large before it is detected, which means that the prognosis is often poor.
Around 190 people are diagnosed with cancer every day in Sweden, and the median age at diagnosis is 72 years. In addition to age, unhealthy lifestyle habits are a factor contributing to the increase in the number of cancer cases.
— There are still things to do to avoid new cases as well as to increase the quality of life of those who have survived or are living with the disease.