Northern Ireland

Number of cancer cases increases by 15 per cent in past decade

An ageing population is a key factor in the increase in the number of cancer diagnoses
An ageing population is a key factor in the increase in the number of cancer diagnoses An ageing population is a key factor in the increase in the number of cancer diagnoses

NORTHERN Ireland's ageing population is being linked to the 15 per cent rise in the number of people receiving a cancer diagnosis over the past decade, according to new research.

Prostate, lung and bowel cancer are the most common forms of the disease in men, while breast cancer remains the dominant cancer in women.

The Queen's University Cancer Registry (NICR) also shows that incidence rates were 10 per cent higher in poorer areas compared to the Northern Ireland average.

The study found the number of new diagnoses rose from 8,269 cases in 2008 to 9,521 cases in 2017, which authors attribute "largely" to people living longer.

But they also pointed to "younger people still getting cancer" with an average of 51 children under the age of 14 getting a diagnosis each year.

Other main findings included:

- A total of 9,401 (4,691 male, 4,710 female) patients were diagnosed with cancer each year during between 2013 and 2017

- Additionally there were 3,720 cases of the more common but more treatable non-melanoma skin cancer.

- Cancer risk was strongly related to age with 63 per cent of cases occurring in pensioners over the age of 65 years and incidence rates greatest for those aged 85 to 89 years

- Odds of developing cancer by the age of 75 was one in 3.5 for men and one in 3.7 for women.

- Incidence rates of cancer in 2013-2017 were eight per cent higher among people living in the Belfast health trust area compared to the Northern Ireland average.

- Survival rates after a year were 71 per cent while five-year net survival was 56 per cent. However, just over a fifth of patients died within six month of diagnosis.

Significantly, the research found that at the end of 2017 there were 63,413 people living in the north who had been diagnosed with cancer since 1993.

The most prevalent types of cancer were prostate cancer, with 10,337 men living with the disease, and breast cancer, with 15,995 women surviving the disease.