Total and partial cancer prevalence in the adult French population in 2008

BACKGROUND: To provide estimations of partial and total prevalence of 24 cancer sites in France in 2008. The estimations of partial prevalence were compared with the previous estimations for 2002. METHODS: Nationwide estimations of incidence and survival data from cancer registries were used for partial prevalence. Nationwide incidence and mortality data were used to estimate total prevalence. RESULTS: At the end of 2008, in France, nearly 3 million people still alive had received a diagnosis of cancer. Of all prevalent cases, 36% were diagnosed 0 to 5 years earlier and 43% diagnosed 6 to 10 years earlier. The cancer sites with the highest prevalence were the prostate, the breast, and the colon-rectum. The changes in partial prevalence over 5 years (2002 to 2008) were considerable (+244,000 cases) and deemed to be highly related to changes in incidence. CONCLUSION: The present estimations update the French prevalence data and highlight the burden of cancer in the population, especially in the elderly. The methods of this study had the advantage of using recent incidence and survival data, which is necessary to show sudden changes in incidence trends and changes in survival that impact prevalence. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12885-015-1168-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.