Cancer diagnoses in the over 80s expected to rise sharply

The number of people over 80 who will get cancer will rise sharply in the near future, cancer expertise centre IKNL has said.

Research by the IKNL and Erasmus University teaching hospital has shown that diagnoses in this age group will rise by 5% every year compared to 2.7% between 1989 and 2019.

Cancer diagnosis in people over 80 has risen from 16% in the same period to 25%. Men are mostly diagnosed with skin cancer, and cancer of lungs, prostate, bladder and colon. The most frequent cancers in elderly women are breast cancer, skin cancer and colon cancer.

The main reason for the rise is the increasingly elderly population, researchers said. If the accelerated rise materialises, some 32,600 people over 80 will be diagnosed with cancer in 2032. In 2019, that number was 18,700.

Elderly patients are less likely to profit from new, systemic therapies, such as immunotherapy and targeted treatment, the research showed. “This group makes other decisions when it comes to treatment, and that is logical. We need to find the right balance between quality of life and life extension,” senior researcher Melinda Schuurman said.

A growing number of cancer sufferers will put more pressure on the health system because they will also present other health problems. “We need more research to predict which treatment benefits individual patients, enabling patients and their doctors to decide on the most suitable treatment,” she said.