(CBS News) The number of cancer survivors living in the U.S. is expected to surge by one-third come 2022, with about 18 million people expected to survive the disease.
The “Cancer Treatment and Survivorship Facts and Figures” report finds that even though cancer incidence rates are decreasing, the number of survivors is growing due to the aging and growth of the population, as well as improved rates in cancer survival. Currently there an estimated 13.7 million people living in the United States who have survived cancer.
Watch: Childhood cancer survivors face higher breast cancer risk
Cancer survivors urged to exercise and eat healthy in new guidelines
Almost half of cancer survivors die of another disease, study shows
The report is the first of its kind collaboration from the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. It’s published in the June 14 issue of CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.
The report showed that in 2012, the three most common cancers among men with a history of the disease were prostate cancer (43 percent of male survivors), colorectal cancer (9 percent), and melanoma (7 percent). As for women, 41 percent of them had breast cancer at some point, 8 percent had uterine cancer, followed by 8 percent reporting that they had colon cancer. Those proportions are expected to be largely unchanged by 2022, the researchers said.
Other notable findings were that about 45 percent of cancer survivors are 70 or older, while only 5 percent are younger than 40 years old. The median age of a patient’s diagnosis was 66.
However children are also affected: The report found there are 58,510 survivors of childhood cancer living in the U.S., and an additional 12,060 children will be diagnosed in 2012.
