Lung cancer survival has improved across the Nordic countries, but important differences remain. NORDCAN data show clear gains in 5-year age-standardised relative survival between 2004 to 2008 and 2019 to 2023 in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. However, the magnitude of improvement differs between countries and between males and females.
These differences raise important research questions for Nordic lung cancer care. How much of the improvement is related to earlier diagnosis, standardized diagnostic pathways, multidisciplinary care, treatment access, radiotherapy and surgery, molecular testing, immunotherapy, registry-based quality monitoring, or broader healthcare system factors?
Why quality registries matter
The Nordic countries have a long tradition of population-based health registries. In lung cancer care, these registries make it possible to follow diagnostic timelines, tumour stage, treatment patterns, access to surgery, radiotherapy and systemic therapy, and survival outcomes across entire populations. This gives researchers a way to study whether differences in care pathways and treatment access help explain the remaining survival differences between countries.