title: Cancer survival in Sweden 1960-1998--developments across four decades.
abstract: This paper summarizes a comprehensive study of cancer survival in Sweden from 1960 to 1998. A total of 1021421 persons and 40 different cancer sites were included in the analyses. The main outcome measure is the relative survival rate (RSR) for different sites and follow-up times after diagnosis. The 10-year RSR for all sites combined has increased steadily-from 26.6% among men and 41.8% among women in the 1960s, to 44.6% (men) and 57.6% (women) in the 1990s. The expectation of life for a person diagnosed with cancer today is about 7 years longer than that of one diagnosed during the mid-1960s. About 3 years are gained due to changes in the relative distribution of various cancer types and about 4 years due to improved relative survival. During the 1990s substantial survival improvements were observed not only for uncommon types, such as testicular cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma and some other haematologic malignancies, but also for cancer of the rectum, kidney and malignant melanoma. Survival for breast and cervical cancer also improved during the 1990s, but not that for pancreatic, liver or lung cancer.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Epidemiology, The National Board of Health and Welfare, Stockholm, Sweden. mats.talback@sos.se
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Talbäck
authors.forename: Magnus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stenbeck
authors.forename: Måns
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosén
authors.forename: Lotti
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barlow
authors.forename: Bengt
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Glimelius
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D004067:Digestive System Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D004703:Endocrine System; D005260:Female; D019337:Hematologic Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D006801:Humans; D008223:Lymphoma / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality*; D009423:Nervous System Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D012042:Registries; D012142:Respiratory Tract Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D012737:Sex Factors; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality; D016019:Survival Analysis; D015996:Survival Rate; D013548:Sweden; D013997:Time Factors; D014565:Urogenital Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality