[Cancer prevalence in France].

To measure the frequency of cancer in a given country on a given year, one can use the number of new diagnosis or the number of deaths, but one can also consider the number of patients who have had a cancer diagnosed in the past and are still alive. This indicator is called prevalence. We present here estimations for the prevalence of cancer at 5 years in France, by sex and by site of cancer. These estimations are based on the number of new diagnoses in 1995 and on survival rates observed in Europe. In year 2000, 620,000 persons (310,000 men and 310,000 women) were followed up in France for a cancer diagnosed within the last 5 years. The most prevalent cancers were breast (136,000 cases), colorectal (91,000 cases) and prostate (83,000 cases) cancers.