The chances of Irish people developing or being diagnosed with cancer may have peaked, the National Cancer Registry reports.
The number of people surviving their diagnosis for at least five years is increasing, but Irish people are still at a higher risk of developing the disease compared with other EU countries, according to the research.
The state agency, which collects information on Irish cancer patients, has estimated the number of cases expected in the country’s ageing population. It said that while the total number of diagnoses continues to rise, the number of people with the most serious types of cancer is remaining steady or decreasing. The number of new cases registered has also slowed.
“As the population increases, and the number of older people increases, we would expect to see an increase in the total number of cancers,” Professor Kerri Clough-Gorr, the director of the registry, said.
“What we did not expect was that the chances of developing the most fatal cancers would stabilise or decrease, which we believe is down to a systemic change. People are being better educated on early detection methods, treatment options, and they are making lifestyle changes to prevent the threat of cancer.”
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Rates in prostate, colorectal and lung cancer — the most common three types in men — are now in decline or remain static, according to the report. For women, the rate of breast cancer continues to decline after increasing between 1994 to 2008.
“Despite these observances, cancer is a still chronic disease and we need to continue to educate the younger generation on lifestyle changes in order to continue this plateau, or hopefully see a significant decline,” Ms Clough-Gor added.
The chances of survival after a cancer diagnoses have been steadily rising. Over four consecutive periods, five-year net survivial for all cancers increased incrementally from 44 per cent in the four years from 1994 to 61 per cent between 2009 and 2013.
At the end of 2014, there were 139,526 people still alive whose cancer had been diagnosed over the previous 21 years, the equivalent to 3 per cent of the Irish population.
Breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer had the highest number of survivors at 31,000, 30,000 and 17,000 respectively.
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Dr Robert O’Connor, the head of research at the Irish Cancer Society, said that he welcomed the results of the report. “This year alone as many as 40,000 people in Ireland will be diagnosed with cancer, but these findings are very promising. Survivors must be supported so that they can live longer, better lives and there is now an increased need to make sure that survivors’ quality of life is the best it can possibly be,” he said.
However, the risk of Irish men and woman being diagnosed with cancer is higher than the EU average. Women had a 55 per cent higher chance of developing lung cancer than those in other European countries and a 24 per cent higher chance of developing ovarian cancer.
An Irish woman also had a higher chance of dying from cancer, while an Irish man had a slightly smaller chance of dying, when compared to the EU average
The disease is the second most common cause of death in Ireland, after those of the circulatory system. There were about 8,700 cancer deaths per year in Ireland between 2011 and 2013.
Lung cancer was the most common cause of death from the disease, accounting for about 21 per cent of the total fatalities. The chances of women getting lung cancer has risen and it is now the second most common form of the disase in females after breast cancer.
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The risk of dying from the disease is about 36 per cent higher for men than for women.