Recent survival trends in the most fatal cancers in the Nordic countries: gains in some but not in all

Siegel RL, Kratzer TB, Wagle NS, Sung H, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2026. CA Cancer J Clin. 2026;76(1):e70043. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.70043

Allemani C, Matsuda T, Di Carlo V, Harewood R, Matz M, Nikšić M, et al. Global surveil-lance of trends in cancer survival 2000–14 (CONCORD-3): analysis of individual rec-ords for 37 513 025 patients diagnosed with one of 18 cancers from 322 population-based registries in 71 countries. Lancet. 2018;391(10125):1023–75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)33326-3

Arnold M, Rutherford MJ, Bardot A, Ferlay J, Andersson TM, Myklebust T, et al. Progress in cancer survival, mortality, and incidence in seven high-income countries 1995–2014 (ICBP SURVMARK-2): a population-based study. Lancet Oncol. 2019;20(11):1493–505. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(19)30456-5

Hemminki J, Försti A, Hemminki A, Hemminki K. Survival trends in solid cancers in the Nordic countries through 50 years. Eur J Cancer. 2022;175:77–85. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejca.2022.08.015

Pukkala E, Engholm G, Hojsgaard Schmidt LK, Storm H, Khan S, Lambe M, et al. Nordic Cancer Registries – an overview of their procedures and data comparability. Acta Oncol. 2018;57:440–55. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0284186X.2017.1407039

Arnold M, Morgan E, Bardot A, Rutherford MJ, Ferlay J, Little A, et al. International variation in oesophageal and gastric cancer survival 2012–2014: differences by histological subtype and stage at diagnosis (an ICBP SURVMARK-2 popu-lation-based study). Gut. 2021;71(8):1532–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/gutjnl-2021-325266

Rutherford MJ, Arnold M, Bardot A, Ferlay J, De P, Tervonen H, et al. Comparison of liver cancer incidence and survival by subtypes across seven high-income countries. Int J Cancer. 2021;149(12):2020–31. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.33767

Withrow DR, Nicholson BD, Morris EJA, Wong ML, Pilleron S. Age-related differences in cancer relative survival in the United States: a SEER-18 analysis. Int J Cancer. 2023;152(11):2283–91. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.34463

Cabasag CJ, Arnold M, Rutherford M, Bardot A, Ferlay J, Morgan E, et al. Pancreatic can-cer survival by stage and age in seven high-income countries (ICBP SURVMARK-2): a population-based study. Br J Cancer. 2022;126(12):1774–82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-022-01752-3

Ellis L, Woods LM, Estève J, Eloranta S, Coleman MP, Rachet B. Cancer incidence, sur-vival and mortality: explaining the concepts. Int J Cancer. 2014;135(8):1774–82. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ijc.28990

McPhail S, Johnson S, Greenberg D, Peake M, Rous B. Stage at diagnosis and early mor-tality from cancer in England. Br J Cancer. 2015;112 (Suppl 1):S108–15. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/bjc.2015.49

Forjaz G, Ries L, Devasia TP, Flynn G, Ruhl J, Mariotto AB. Long-term cancer survival trends by updated summary stage. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev. 2023;32(11):1508–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-23-0589

Engholm G, Ferlay J, Christensen N, Bray F, Gjerstorff ML, Klint A, et al. NORDCAN – a Nordic tool for cancer information, planning, quality control and re-search. Acta Oncol. 2010;49(5):725–36. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3109/02841861003782017

Larønningen S, Arvidsson G, Bray F, Dahl-Olsen E, Engholm G, Ervik M, et al. NORD-CAN: cancer incidence, mortality, prevalence and survival in the nordic countries, Ver-sion 9.5 (19.06.2025). 2025.

Thiis-Evensen E, Boyar Cetinkaya R. Incidence and prevalence of neuroendocrine neo-plasms in Norway 1993–2021. J Neuroendocrinol. 2023;35(4):e13264. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/jne.13264