Report: More than 19,000 new cancer cases diagnosed every year in Ireland
More than 19,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in Ireland every year, new figures show.
The 2014 annual report from the National Cancer Registry - entitled Cancer in Ireland 1994-2011 - indicates that cancer is now the second most common cause of death in this country, behind heart disease.
The Registry says that despite the evident impact of new screening methods, which have resulted in the rate of diagnosis for new cases of some of the most common cancers greatly increasing over the past four years, the rate of breast and prostate cancer diagnosis is growing rapidly.
In total, more than 19,000 invasive cases were diagnosed every year between 2009 and 2011, with a lifetime risk of 1-in-3 for men and 1-in-4 for women.
Diagnoses of breast cancer are now at almost twice the UK rate due to screening programmes, while the introduction of new tests is seeing higher rates of prostate cancer and skin melanomas.
The report says there were almost 9,000 deaths from cancer in 2011, making it the second most common cause of death after heart disease.
However our five-year survival rates are broadly in line with those in the UK apart from ovarian and kidney cancers, both of which see us rank among the worst in Europe.
