UK 'lagging behind' in cancer survival rates

Wednesday, 22 December 2010 9:30 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

British survival rates for the main cancers are improving, but still remain well behind other countries.

Today's report by the Lancet journal examined 2.4 million sufferers of four major cancers - comparing survival rates in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the UK excluding Scotland.

It found that for all four types of cancer examined (breast, lung, bowel and ovarian), rates of survival improved.

But Britain suffered by comparison to high-performers such as Australia, having among the lowest survival rates, particularly for elderly patients and for those in the first year since being diagnosed.

For example, only 8.8% of UK lung cancer patients survived for five years while the figure for Canada was 18.4%.

Denmark also showed poor performance, but the lowest survival rates were experienced within England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Authors insisted that the discrepancies were not a measure of better or worse cancer doctors.

Rather the overall system of diagnosis and treatment processes were responsible for the sharp variations, they claimed.

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