The number of cancer survivors in the United States will approach 18 million, up 31% from about 13.7 million as of Jan. 1, 2012, reports Julia Rowland, from the US National Cancer Institute (Maryland, USA), and colleagues. The team’s “Cancer Survivors in the United States” Report submits that the growing number of cancer survivors is partly related to better care, but more so the increase in the number of survivors will be due primarily to an aging of the population, where “by 2020, we expect that two-thirds of cancer survivors are going to be age 65 or older.” Currently, 64% of cancer survivors have lived at least 5 years since diagnosis, 40% have survived 10 years or more, and 15% have survived at least 20 years. Over the next decade, the Report projects that the number of people who have lived at least 5 years after diagnosis is will increase approximately 37% to 11.9 million driven in large part by long-term survivors –as the largest relative increase in the number of cancer survivors will be among people who are at least 15 years post diagnosis, where prevalence is projected to increase from 3.4 million or 25% of all survivors in 2012 to 5 million or 28% of all survivors in 2022.
Soaring Numbers of Cancer Survivors
The graying of America is projected to dramatically drive up the numbers of cancer survivors u2013 and the associated healthcare costs u2013 in the next decade.
de Moor JS, Mariotto AB, Parry C, Alfano CM, Padgett L, Kent EE, Forsythe L, Scoppa S, Hachey M, Rowland JH. “Cancer Survivors in the United States: Prevalence across the Survivorship Trajectory and Implications for Care.” Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2013 Apr;22(4):561-70.
