This indicator is part of Target (1): 25 per cent reduction in overall mortality from cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory disease.

Results

Figures 1a and b demonstrate the incidence of new cancer cases since we started to systematically record all new cases of cancer in 1953.

• The incidence rates for most cancer sites have increased since the registration started.
• The most pronounced upward trends have been for lung cancer among women and skin cancer (melanoma and non-melanoma) in both sexes.
• Stomach cancer was the commonest cancer in men until early 1960s. Prostate cancer has thereafter been the most common cancer in men and today it accounts for more than 25% of all cancer cases among men.  
• Among women, breast cancer has been the most common cancer since the registration began in 1953 and today it accounts for more than 20 % of all cancer cases among women.  
• Stomach cancer is one of the few types of cancer that has seen a clear and dramatic decline. 
• Cervical cancer incidence rates declined from the beginning of the 1970s to late 1990s, a slight increase has been observed for some few years in the last decade. 

Table accompanying the figures

• Table 1- cancer incidence.pdf

Data source: Norwegian Cancer Registry

The data source for this indicator is the Norwegian Cancer Registry. A description and definitions follow below.

Description

The Norwegian Cancer Registry has information on new cancer cases in the population based on the results of tissue sample analyses and information from doctors examining, treating and following up cancer patients. Furthermore, the Norwegian Cancer Registry obtains all C and D codes from the Norwegian Patient Registry and can thus search for missing clinical information for patients who are not registered; the Norwegian Cancer Registry is considered to be almost 100 per cent complete. The Norwegian Cancer Registry publishes its “Cancer in Norway” report every year, which includes complete incidence data on the different types of cancer. In addition, there is NORDCAN, a database of cancer statistics for the Nordic countries, and the global cancer statistics of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), Global Cancer Observatory.

The numbers are from the yearly report Cancer in Norway.

Links:  

• The Norwegian Cancer Registry
• NORDCAN
• Global Cancer Observatory

Effect measure

Cancer incidence per 100 000 person years; Norway’s population in 2014 (average age distribution during the course of 2014) is used as a weighting for age standardisation. The period of measurement is 1953-2021, both genders and all age groups are included. 

In age standardisation, the number of new cancer cases per 100 000 person years is adjusted (weighted) in relation to a standard population, and expresses the number of new cancer cases such as it would have been if the age composition had been the same as the standard population during all periods. Standardisation is used to enable comparison of rates across populations and time. 

National adaptation to global indicators

WHO’s definition of the indicator

Indicator 2. Cancer incidence, by type of cancer, per 100 000 population. 

National adaptation

The Norwegian Cancer Registry reports national data to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), WHO.  WHO uses the WHO Standard Population when presenting the figures. Due to different data processing methods, there may be some divergence between the data presented above and the data presented by WHO.