LONDON (Reuters) - Rich nations such as Sweden, Switzerland and Germany have the highest prevalence of cancer in Europe while Poland, Estonia and Slovakia have the lowest, according to a survey published on Thursday.

Countries with low infant mortality and high gross domestic income tended to have higher cancer prevalence--the number of patients with the disease at a given time--than their poorer neighbors.

The high prevalence in wealthier nations is linked, at least in part, to better detection and improved survival rates. Low prevalence is due to a low incidence of the disease but also a high mortality rate.

"The study documents for the first time what the prevalence of cancer is across countries," Professor Michel Coleman of the London School of Hygiene said in an interview.

It shows that about two percent of the population are cancer survivors, he added.

Dr. Diane Stockton, of the Scottish Cancer Intelligence Unit in Edinburgh, said the research shows that almost half of people living with cancer have survived more than five years since being diagnosed with the disease.

The information from the EUROPREVAL study, published in the journal Annals of Oncology, is important for health planners because it shows increasing life expectancy and survival from cancer but also increasing incidence of the disease.

Coleman said the key to reducing prevalence is to get better at preventing people from developing the disease.

Breast cancer accounted for 34% of female cancers and women made up 61% of the total cancer prevalence, mainly because so many are being successfully treated for the disease and surviving.

The most prevalent cancer among men was colorectal cancer, which made up 15% of all male cancers.

"A poorer country's cancer mix will tend toward cancers of poor prognosis and those of a more advanced stage, and this caseload, coupled with a lower expenditure on health, will inevitably deliver a lower overall cancer survival rate and a comparatively low cancer prevalence," Professor Graham Giles, of CCRI, Cancer Epidemiology Centre in Carlton, Australia, said in an editorial in the journal.

Information on three million patients from 38 cancer registries in 17 countries was used in the study.

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