Trends in Cancer Incidence, Survival and Mortality

Abstract

Previous analyses of trends in cancer, particularly of cancer mortality in the United States and Europe, have given rise to diametrically opposed interpretations according to which society is either “losing the war against cancer” (2) or, alternatively, “clearly winning the war” (3). That distinguished scientists with access to the same data could espouse such different views indicates the lack of consensus over which measures should be used to evaluate trends in cancer and over how those trends should be interpreted. Several authors have examined trends in either incidence or mortality for most major cancers within a country or region, and there have been many reports on trends in particular cancers. Long-term trends in incidence, survival or mortality for all the major cancers have now been examined in France (4-6), Italy (7), Sweden (8), the United Kingdom (9-11), the European Union (12) and the United States (13,14), but such reports remain relatively uncommon.