[Treatment of cancer patients in the Nordic countries]

A recent analysis of epidemiological data from the Nordic Cancer Registries revealed that the prognosis of several groups of cancer patients in Denmark is inferior to that of the other countries. These differences have evolved during the last 20-30 years. The prognosis of cancer patients in the Nordic countries is reasonably good compared to other European countries and to the black community in the United States while the white community in the US has a better prognosis with regard to most of the cancer diseases. It is speculated that these differences reflect differences in resources allocated to cancer treatment.