Cancer Information in the North West
Overview of cancer in the North West
Overview by Cancer Networks in the North West
Explanation of terms and their usefulness
Overview of Cancer in the North West
Average annual number of deaths from and new cases of cancer for the North West
AVERAGE ANNUAL NUMBER
NEW CASES *
DEATHS
2002-2004
Males
16,937
9,756
Females
16,824
9,040
Persons
33,761
18,796
* Excluding non-melanoma skin cancer
There are over just under 34,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed in the North West annually, and almost 19,000 deaths from cancer. The number of new cases in males has increased over time by approximately 6% when comparing 2002-04 to 1995-97. However, when taking into account the increasing age structure of the population (i.e. by using age standardised rates) incidence rates in males have shown no increase over time when comparing the same time period.
The number of new cases in females has increased over time by approximately 4%. In contrast to males however, female incidence rates still show an increase over time of approximately 3%.
When looking at mortality, the number of deaths in males has decreased by approximately 5% (2002-04 v 1995-97), whereas the age standardised rate has decreased by 11% for the same period.
The number of female deaths has also decreased by around 5%, but mortality rates show a smaller decrease than in males, with a decrease in the age standardised rate of 8%.
Crude and age standardised (Europe) rates per 100,000 for the North West
CRUDE AND AGE STANDARDISED RATES (PER 100,00)
INCIDENCE *
MORTALITY
MALES
CRUDE
511.2
295.7
AGE STANDARDISED (EUROPE)
434.2
246.7
FEMALES
480.3
259.3
361.2
170.2
Average annual number of new cases of cancer and deaths from cancer by age group for the North West
Cases excluding non-melanoma skin
Cancer incidence rates increase with age. However, the largest number of new cases of cancer are diagnosed in men aged 70-74 years and women aged 75-79. The number of cases decrease after these age bands due to a smaller population.
The largest number of deaths occur in males aged 75-79, and in females aged 85+.
Incidence rates are higher in females up to the age of 60, but then become greater for males over that age.
Contribution of common cancers to cancer deaths and incidence in the North West, 2002-2004
INCIDENCE (% of all malignant neoplasms*)
MALE
FEMALE
PERSONS
Lung
17.5
13.4
15.5
Colorectal
13.3
10.6
12.0
Female Breast
-
29.9
14.9
Prostate
22.8
11.4
Oesophagus
3.7
2.1
2.9
Stomach
4.4
2.6
3.5
Pancreas
2.3
2.5
2.4
Bladder
5.3
3.8
NHL
3.3
3.0
3.2
Ovary
4.5
2.2
Melanoma
3.1
2.7
Cervix
2.0
1.0
Other
25.0
23.9
24.5
MORTALITY (% of all cancer deaths)
26.4
21.3
24.0
10.4
9.2
9.9
15.8
7.6
10.9
5.7
6.3
3.6
5.0
4.3
3.9
4.1
5.5
1.1
0.9
1.7
0.8
29.3
29.0
29.2
Incidence and Mortality for common sites of cancer in the North West
INCIDENCE
Rates per 100,000
Annual average
Crude
Age-standardised
number of cases
(Europe)
number of deaths
625
18.9
16.1
612
18.5
15.7
746
22.5
18.7
490
14.8
12.1
2,259
68.2
57.5
1,018
30.9
25.7
394
11.9
10.1
377
9.6
2,969
89.6
74.8
2,580
78.2
64.8
388
11.7
10.7
103
3,865
116.7
96.7
1,065
32.3
26.1
892
26.9
22.1
383
11.6
9.5
562