Cancer

More than one in five persons develops a cancer before the age of 70. Cancer is the main cause of premature mortality. One in sixteen persons is hospitalised because of a cancer.

Cancer

2019	Men	Women
Cancer epidemiology
Number of new cases1	25 302	21 107
Incidence rate²	428.5	334.7
Cumulative risk before age 70, as a %	23.9	20.4
Number of deaths from cancer	9 322	7 870
Share of all causes of death, as a %	28.5	22.5
Mortality rate²	142.8	99.5
Number of YPLL³ by cancer	25 934	25 160
Share of all YPLL, in %	27.0	45.6
Hospitalisations with primary diagnosis of cancer
Number of hospitalised patients	34 981	30 881
Share of all hospitalised patients, in %	7.4	5.5

1 New cases estimated on the basis of cancer registry data, excl. non-melanoma skin cancer
2 Rate per 100,000 inhabitants, European standard
3 Years of potential life lost before age 70 Source: FSO, NACR, CCR

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in Switzerland. It even represents the most common cause of death for men aged between 45 and 84 and for women aged between 25 and 84.

Cancer can occur at any age but the risk increases with age. From 2010-2014 and 2015‑2019, the number of new cancer cases and that of deaths caused by cancer increased among both men and women, however, considering the ageing of the population, the standardised incidence rates have remained similar. Standardised mortality rates have been falling for a longer period of time.

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