New statistics from Norway’s national cancer register (Kreftregisteret) show that 32,592 Norwegians were diagnosed with cancer last year. The number of women diagnosed with colon cancer was the highest ever, with colon cancer cases showing the biggest increase among all forms of the disease.
“Colon cancer is a considerable health problem and we must take this problem seriously,” Giske Ursin, director of the cancer register, told news bureau NTB. Calls have also gone out to offer publicly funded screening programs for colon cancer, similar to those that have been offered for breast cancer for many years.
A total of 1,400 men and 1,535 women were found to have colon cancer, which is now the second-most common form of cancer among women in Norway. Breast cancer remained the highest, with 3,415 cases diagnosed in 2015.
Prostate cancer is the form most often diagnosed in men, with 5,061 new cases registered last year. It was the first time the number surpassed 5,000, followed by 1,564 cases of lung cancer. Colon cancer was the third most frequently diagnosed.
The total number of cancer cases diagnosed in Norway last year was up by just over 1,000 from the 31,651 cases diagnosed in 2014.
newsinenglish.no staff
