An entire Gothenburg affected by cancer

More and more people are suffering from cancer, but survival is also increasing, according to new figures. But those who are declared healthy or living with cancer often feel abandoned.

– Now we need to invest more in increasing the quality of life for them, says Ulrika Årehed Kågström, secretary general of the 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.

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 is 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 survived or live with the disease.

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