Charity highlights 'worrying' failure to improve cancer survival in England

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/12/charity-highlights-worrying-failure-to-improve-cancer-survival-in-england

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Survival rates for many cancers, including three of the most common – breast, colon and prostate cancers – have plateaued over the past decade, official figures for England show.

The proportion of adults who survived for one year or five years respectively after being diagnosed with cancer in the four-year period 2013-2017 showed little change from levels in 2008-2012. For bladder cancer, the five-year survival rate apparently deteriorated.

Dr Fran Woodard, the executive director of policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, which analysed the data, published by the Office for National Statistics on Monday, said: “After some encouraging improvement in previous years, this stall is really worrying – and is compounded by the fact that the UK is already lagging behind the rates of many other European countries.

“These statistics highlight the importance of early diagnosis in cancer, as survival rates for patients diagnosed with more advanced cancers are significantly worse than those caught at an earlier stage. Whilst hardworking NHS staff do everything in their power to ensure patients are referred, diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible, they are desperately struggling to meet rising patient need.”

Around 45,800 women and 320 men were diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017, while 41,200 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer and around 12,000 men and 11,200 women with colon cancer. For these three cancers, variations over time were insignificant in both one-year and five-year survival rates. But for bladder cancer, the five-year survival rate dropped from 57.1% in the period 2008-2012 to 52.6% in 2013-17. Around 6,300 men and 2,400 women were diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2017.

Survival rates in some cancers, including breast cancer, have doubled since the 1970s but continue to lag behind other countries. Macmillan has previously said the chances of surviving some of the most commonly occurring types of the disease in the UK trail at least 10 years behind many comparable European countries.

The NHS long-term plan targets an increase in the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 from around 50% now to 75% of cancer patients by 2028 to help boost survival rates. From 2028, the aim is for 55,000 more people each year to survive cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.

Emlyn Samuel, the head of policy development at Cancer Research UK, said: “We need to see changes at a much faster rate if we’re going to catch up with other countries.

“Early diagnosis is key to giving patients the best chance of survival – but the NHS is struggling to meet rising demand due to chronic staff shortages in key areas. The government must invest in more staff to diagnose and treat cancer, or the ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at an early stage by 2028 won’t be met.”

There was better news with respect to children, with one-, five- and 10-year childhood cancer survival rates all continuing to increase. The five-year survival rate saw the greatest improvement over time, an increase of 8.4 percentage points from 77.1% in 2001 to 85.5% predicted for children diagnosed in 2018.

Prof Stephen Powis, the NHS medical director, said: “The cancer survival rate for adults in England is at an all-time high, while children’s survival is also on the rise, thanks to greater awareness, better access to tests and more lifesaving NHS treatments, all of which we will ramp up through the NHS long-term plan, with plans to offer every child with cancer a genetic test and world-leading treatments like proton beam therapy for rare tumours now available.”