Increasing incidence of central nervous system tumors in Denmark (1995-2023)

Increasing incidence of CNS-tumours in Denmark
Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation, 7 October 2024

The latest report on the number of new cancer cases in Denmark for 2023 shows that central nervous system (CNS) tumors, including brain tumors, have been increasing among both men and women.

On September 30, 2024, the Danish Cancer Registry published a new report on the number of newly diagnosed cancers during the last year 2023. The data shows that tumors of the central nervous system, CNS, including brain tumors, are increasing and are among the cancers that have increased most rapidly over the past ten years between 2014 and 2023. This applies to all tumor types combined. The statistics thus contradict those who argue that brain tumor incidence is not increasing, an argument that been used to argue that mobile phone use is not linked to an increased risk of brain tumors or cancers in general.

The Swedish Radiation Protection Foundation has examined three reports from the Danish Cancer Registry (see sources below). These reports include the number of new cases of CNS tumors per 100,000 inhabitants, age-standardized to the Danish population in 2000. We compiled the data from 1995 through 2023 in the graph below:

The number of new cases of central nervous system (CNS) tumors, including brain tumors, among women (blue) and men (red) per 100 000 inhabitants, each year in Denmark from 1995 to 2023, age-standardized to the Danish population in 2000.

The graph shows that there has been an increasing trend of new cases since 2004. The increase is observed among both women and men, but has been more pronounced among women. In 2023, the incidence rate among women was 42 per 100 000 inhabitants, compared with 24.1 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2004. For men, the incidence rate was 32.5 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2023, compared with 21.1 per 100 000 inhabitants in 2004.

In absolute numbers, this corresponds to 1432 new cases among women in 2023, compared to 692 in 2004, i.e. an increase of 107% over the last 20 years. For men, 1058 new cases were reported in 2023 compared to 557 in 2004, representing an increase of 90%.

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https://radiationprotection.se/cancer/increasing-incidence-of-cns-tumours-in-denmark/

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