Number of US cancer survivors to rise by 31%
Based on an analysis of the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results Program and population projections from the US Census Bureau, the second Annual Report on Cancer Survivorship in the United States by the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) indicates that the number of cancer survivors in the US is expected to increase by 31% to 18 million by 2022.
Julia Rowland, PhD, director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship at the National Cancer Institute, a part of the National Institutes of Health, said, “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.”
According to Rowland, the increased cancer survival population will offer distinctive healthcare challenges in the future. For instance, Rowland estimates that about 16% of the patients will have had previous malignancies, and patients with cancer will likely require management of comorbid conditions.
“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,” added Rowland.
The report is published in the AACR’s journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
Source: AACR.