Cancer Statistics in Korea: Incidence, Mortality, Survival, and Prevalence in 2018

Abstract

Purpose: The current study provides national cancer statistics and their secular trends in Korea, including incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2018.

Materials and methods: Incidence, survival, and prevalence rates of cancer were calculated using the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, from 1999 to 2018, with survival follow-up until December 31, 2019. Deaths from cancer were assessed using causes-of-death data obtained from Statistics Korea. Crude and age-standardized rates (ASRs) for incidence, mortality, prevalence, and 5-year relative survival rates were calculated, and temporal trends for incidence and mortality rates were evaluated, with annual percentage changes.

Results: In 2018, newly diagnosed cancer cases and deaths from cancer were reported as 243,837 (ASR, 270.4 per 100,000) and 79,153 (ASR, 73.3 per 100,000), respectively. The overall cancer incidence rates increased by 3.3% annually from 1999 to 2012, and decreased by 5.4% annually from 2012 to 2015, thereafter, followed by nonsignificant changes. Cancer mortality rates have been decreasing since 2002, with more rapid decline in recent years (annual decrease of 2.7% from 2007 to 2014; 3.7% from 2014 to 2018). The 5-year relative survival between 2014 and 2018 was 70.3%, which contributed to prevalent cases reaching over 2 million by the end of 2018.

Conclusion: Cancer statistics have improved significantly during the past two decades. However, there remain important challenges to be solved, such as controlling cancers with low survival rates. Cancer statistics can be used to discover blind spots in cancer control, and as evidence for developing and implementing future cancer control strategies.

Keywords: Incidence; Korea; Mortality; Neoplasms; Prevalence; Survival.

Fig. 1

The five common sites of cancer incidence by age group and sex in Korea, 2018. (A) Men. (B) Women. Numbers in the graph are age-specific incidence rates per 100,000. CNS, central nervous system.

Fig. 2

Age-specific incidence rates of common cancers for 2018 in Korea. (A) Men. (B) Women.

Fig. 3

Annual age-standardized cancer incidence and mortality rates by sex for all sites from 1983 to 2018 in Korea. Age standardization was based on Segi’s world standard population.

Fig. 4

Trends in age-standardized incidences of selected cancers by sex from 1999 to 2018 in Korea. (A) Men. (B) Women. Age standardization was based on Segi’s world standard population.

Fig. 5

Trends in age-standardized mortalities of selected cancers by sex from 1983 to 2018 in Korea. (A) Men. (B) Women. Age standardization was based on Segi’s world standard population. ^a)Cancers of cervix uteri, corpus uteri, and unspecified parts of the uterus were combined (C53–C55), due to their unclear classifications in the past.

Fig. 6

Five-year relative survival rates by stage at diagnosis and stage distribution of selected cancers by sex in Korea, 2014–2018. (A) Men. (B) Women. Staging according to the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) stage categories. For each cancer type, stage categories do not total 100% because sufficient information was not available to stage all cases. ^a)Includes the gallbladder and other/unspecified parts of the biliary tract.

Fig. 7

Prevalent cases of common cancers by time since cancer diagnosis. Prevalent cases were defined as the number of cancer patients alive on January 1, 2019 among all cancer patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2018.