Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Mar;45(1):1-14.
doi: 10.4143/crt.2013.45.1.1. Epub 2013 Mar 31.

Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence in 2010

Kyu-Won Jung  1 , Young-Joo Won, Hyun-Joo Kong, Chang-Mo Oh, Hong Gwan Seo, Jin-Soo Lee
Affiliations

Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence in 2010

Kyu-Won Jung et al. Cancer Res Treat. 2013 Mar.

Abstract

Purpose: This article gives an overview of nationwide cancer statistics, including incidence, mortality, survival and prevalence, and their trends in Korea based on 2010 cancer incidence data.

Materials and methods: Incidence data from 1993 to 2010 were obtained from the Korea National Cancer Incidence Database, and vital status was followed until 31 December 2011. Mortality data from 1983 to 2010 were obtained from Statistics Korea. Crude and age-standardized rates for incidence, mortality, prevalence, and relative survival were calculated.

Results: In total, 202,053 cancer cases and 72,046 cancer deaths occurred during 2010, and 960,654 prevalent cancer cases were identified in Korea as of 1 January 2011. The incidence of all cancers combined showed an annual increase of 3.3% from 1999 to 2010. The incidences of liver and cervical cancers have decreased while those of thyroid, breast, prostate and colorectal cancers have increased. Notably, thyroid cancer, which is the most common cancer in Korea, increased by 24.2% per year rapidly in both sexes. The mortality of all cancers combined showed a decrease by 2.7% annually from 2002 to 2010. Five-year relative survival rates of patients who were diagnosed with cancer from 2006 to 2011 had improved by 22.9% compared with those from 1993 to 1995.

Conclusion: While the overall cancer incidence in Korea has increased rapidly, age-standardized cancer mortality rates have declined since 2002 and survival has improved.

Keywords: Incidence; Korea; Mortality; Neoplasms; Prevalence; Survival.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest relevant to this article was not reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Annual age-standardized cancer incidence and death rates for all sites during 1983-2010 in Korea by sex. Age standardization was based on the world standard population.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Trends in age-standardized incidences of selected cancers during 1999-2010 in Korea by sex. Age standardization was based on the world standard population. (A) Male. (B) Female.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Age-specific incidence rates of major cancers during 2010 in Korea. (A) Male. (B) Female.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Annual age-standardized mortalities of selected cancers during 1983-2010 in Korea by sex. Age standardization was based on the world standard population. (A) Male. (B) Female.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Numbers of prevalent cases for major cancer sites on January 1, 2011 in Korea by time since diagnosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Statistics Korea [Internet] Daejeon: Statistics Korea; 2012. [cited 2013 Jan 4]. Available from: http://kostat.go.kr.
    1. Yoon SJ, Bae SC, Lee SI, Chang H, Jo HS, Sung JH, et al. Measuring the burden of disease in Korea. J Korean Med Sci. 2007;22:518–523. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Jung KW, Park S, Kong HJ, Won YJ, Lee JY, Seo HG, et al. Cancer statistics in Korea: incidence, mortality, survival, and prevalence in 2009. Cancer Res Treat. 2012;44:11–24. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Won YJ, Sung J, Jung KW, Kong HJ, Park S, Shin HR, et al. Nationwide cancer incidence in Korea, 2003-2005. Cancer Res Treat. 2009;41:122–131. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Shin HR, Won YJ, Jung KW, Kong HJ, Yim SH, Lee JK, et al. Nationwide cancer incidence in Korea, 1999~2001: first result using the national cancer incidence database. Cancer Res Treat. 2005;37:325–331. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources