Cancer Survivor Population is Growing
Friday, April 26, 2013
A New Report Shows Just How Much the Cancer Survivor Population Is Growing – And More Important, Why It Is Growing
According to a new report by the American Association for Cancer Research, the cancer survivor population in American is expected to rise to 18 million by the year 2022. Currently, there are nearly 14 million cancer survivors living in the United States. When Congress passed the National Cancer Act back in 1971, that number was only 3 million.
The “Why” Behind the Numbers
Researchers believe the estimated 31% increase in U.S. cancer survivors will be largely due to an aging of the population. As Americans are living longer, cancer diagnoses are expected to increase because cancer is chiefly a disease of aging.
“The increase in the number of survivors will be due primarily to an aging of the population. By 2020, we expect that two-thirds of cancer survivors are going to be age 65 or older,” says Julia Rowland, PhD, director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health.
The Good News
The good news is that not only are Americans living longer in general, but cancer survivors are living longer after diagnosis as well. The current five-year survival rate for all cancers is about 65%.
However, the report shows that survival is not uniform across cancer subtypes. Currently, women with breast cancer account for 22% of survivors, while men with prostate cancer make up 20%. People with lung cancer, the second most common cancer in terms of diagnosis, only represent 3% of survivors.
“For patients with prostate cancer, we have a nearly 100% five-year survival rate, and breast cancer has made tremendous strides as well, with five-year survival rising from 75% in 1975 to almost 89% in 2012,” says Dr. Rowland. “However, we clearly need to have better diagnostic tools and better treatments for lung cancer.”
The Challenges Facing the Healthcare Community
According to Dr. Rowland, the increase in the cancer survivor population will present new challenges for the healthcare community. People diagnosed with cancer will likely have comorbid conditions that need to be managed, and Dr. Rowland estimates that 16% will have had a previous malignancy.
“How to ensure that these patients lead not only long lives, but healthy and productive lives, will be a vital challenge to all of us,” says Dr. Rowland.
To read the full report, go to cancerprogressreport.org.
At the National Cancer Survivors Day Foundation, one of our goals is to increase awareness about the challenges cancer survivors face. What cancer survivorship issues would you like to see the medical community address? What suggestions do you have for improving quality of life for all cancer survivors?
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