Fewer cases of prostate, breast and lung cancer in 2023

The four most common forms of cancer – prostate, breast, colon and lung cancer – accounted for a total of 42 percent of all cancer cases in Norway in 2023. Normally, a small, annual increase in cancer numbers is expected, because there are increasing numbers in this country and a constant greater proportion of the population is older.

– This year several arrows are pointing in the right direction, says director Giske Ursin of the Cancer Registry, FHI to NTB.

The annual statistics from the Cancer Registry came on Tuesday morning. Ursin is particularly pleased with the 6.2 per cent decrease in the number of lung cancer cases among women.

– These are long-awaited figures – lung cancer among women has increased alarmingly over a long time, but now we see a significant decrease, which we hope will continue, says Ursin.

Largest decrease for lung cancer

The decrease for lung cancer was a total of 6.1 per cent, from 3,534 in 2022 to 3,319 cases last year. The form of cancer was thus overtaken by colon cancer, which is now number three on the list of the most common forms of cancer. The number of cases there rose slightly, to 3,388.

The most common form is prostate cancer. 5,258 new cases were discovered among men last year, a decrease from 2022 of 3.9 percent.

The second most common is breast cancer, which 4,076 women in Norway were diagnosed with last year. This is a decrease of 3.5 per cent from the record year 2022, when 4,224 received the diagnosis.

Longer trends

Ursin emphasizes that one should be careful not to put too much into changes from one year to the next, but says that when we look over longer periods, and weight the figures for population development, the arrows also point in the right direction:

– When we compare the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 with the previous five-year period, we are very happy. When you look at cancer figures for a single year, coincidences can play a role, but now the rates for the entire five-year period are going down for the first time for several forms of cancer, she says.

Development has leveled off or declined for many forms of cancer. The rates are lower in the last five-year period compared to the previous one also for gynecological cancer, testicular cancer and leukemias and lymphomas.

Skin and mole cancer in a special class

At the same time, there are some forms of cancer that stand out with a continued increase.

– Here, skin cancer and melanoma are in a special class. These are forms of cancer that have had an enormous increase over many decades, and where we still see no signs of a decline, says Ursin.

Last year, 3,059 cases of skin cancer and 2,967 cases of melanoma – mole cancer were registered.

– These are forms of cancer that are closely related to sunbathing habits and sunburn, and where many of the cases could have been prevented, says Ursin.