Cancer in Europe: more cases, but fewer deaths

The number of cancer cases has continued to rise across Europe, however mortality rates from the disease have fallen, according to the WHO’s European Health Report, published Wednesday.

Some 2.4 percent of people living in the 53 countries constituting the WHO’s “Europe region” had cancer in 2014, a 50 percent increase since 2000, although the figure conceals significant disparities in cancer type and region.

In the Nordic countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland, the prevalence of cancer is twice as high at 5 percent, while it is only 1.8 percent in the 10 post-Soviet states that comprise the Commonwealth of Independent States, which includes Belarus, Georgia and Russia.

The 2013 figure in the European Union was 2.8 percent, with a slightly higher prevalence for women (2.9 percent) than for men (2.7 percent).

New breast cancer cases increased by 30 percent between 2000 and 2014, when 110 new cases were reported per every 100,000 women.

The rise is constant throughout the region, with the Nordic countries recording the most new cases with 175 per 100,000 women in 2014.

Although breast cancer has become more common, it has also been better treated.

Death rates from the disease have steadily decreased in the region since the late 1990s, reaching 20 deaths per 100,000 women in 2015 (21.4 in the EU), compared to 23.8 in 2000 (26.8 in the EU).

Cases of cervical cancer have varied from country to country over time.