Fewer people are getting cancer than might be expected in view of population growth, preliminary cancer figures over 2025 have shown.
Last year, 134, 800 people were diagnosed with cancer in the Netherlands, 100 more than the previous year. This is fewer than might be expected with a population growth of 100,000, Otto Visser, head of IKNL cancer registration, told the AD.
The figures showed that fewer people are diagnosed with lung and colon cancer, compensating for a growing number of skin cancer and prostate cancer cases.
“It looks as if the biggest rise in the risk of getting cancer is behind us. We have had the surge, but we are still at a high level of risk,” Visser said.
He expects the relative number of cases will remain stable in the years ahead, although in absolute terms cancer diagnoses are still rising, mainly because of an ageing population, he said.
The positive effect of mass screening for colon cancer which led to a fall in cases over the last 10 years, is not expected to continue to show up in future figures, Visser said.
The figures also show that the same number of women as men were diagnosed with lung cancer in 2025. “Almost all men used to smoke, but that generation has almost died off. Women took to smoking much later, say in the flower power days. That is what is causing the different effects: more women with lung cancer and fewer men,” epidemiologist Bart Kiemeney told the paper.
The harmful effects of the sun and a lack of sun protection are also becoming clear, with many more people over 75 with skin cancer.
The increase in prostate cancer cases is due to age and the relatively easy way to detect the cancer by using a PSA test, Kiemeney said.
The figures show that men still run a bigger risk of getting cancer than women, partly because of delayed effects, the rise in prostate cancer diagnoses, and a suspected higher DNA-related propensity for the disease.
