More than 33,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in Norway last year, according to new statistics from the state cancer register (Kreftregister). The county where the most incidences of cancer were recorded was Rogaland on the West Coast.
The total of new cancer diagnoses nationwide was 33,564, bringing the total number of people living with cancer in Norway to more than 270,000. While Vestfold County has earlier topped the list, it was overtaken last year by Rogaland, where 2,877 cancer diagnoses were made in 2017. That amounts to a rate of 802 cancer diagnoses for every 100,000 residents.
Vestfold, where skin cancer has been the biggest problem, now follows with 797 incidents of cancer per 100,000 residents. “We see that geographic variations are tied to lifestyle-related causes of cancer,” cancer register director Giske Ursin told news bureau NTB. He said the most common are colon cancer that’s often tied to diets lacking fiber, lung cancer tied to smoking and skin cancer tied to too much exposure to the sun.
“One element (in Vestfold, located along the fjord south of Oslo) can be a combination of summer, boating and older men who don’t use sunscreen lotions before casting off their shirts after a long winter,” Ursin said.
newsinenglish.no staff
