UK cancer survival rates lagging most of Europe
Cancer charities blamed the poor results on deficient radiotherapy services and the fact that people are still waiting too long after discovering a lump or another sign of cancer to see a doctor.
The survey of cancer survival rates of 2.7 million people with cancer across Europe, Eurocare, shows that the gap between the highest survival rates, in the Nordic north and the lowest, mainly in eastern countries including Poland, is narrowing. But those in the UK remain stubbornly low.
The research suggests that if all countries were achieving the survival rates of the most successful Nordic countries, then there would be 12% fewer deaths across Europe - 150,000.
Survival rates for people diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000-02 were 77.8% in England, 77.3% in Scotland and 78.4% in Wales. In Iceland women in the same period had a 93.4% survival rate and in Sweden 86.3%. The Lancet Oncology says: "Overall, survival for all cancers combined in the UK as a whole is not only below the European average, it is also noticeably similar to some eastern European countries that spend less than one third of the UK’s per capita healthcare budget." Addressing the problem would require "fundamental reassessment of the ways in which the NHS operates".
Ian Kunkler, from the Edinburgh Cancer Centre and a co-author of one of the reports, said: "The research shows that survival rates are improving overall particularly for colorectal, breast, thyroid and prostate cancers. But within the UK if you look at breast cancer there’s still a difference of 8.5% of five-year survival rates compared with Sweden. England is still behind. But the effect of the national cancer plan introduced in 2000 is unlikely to be seen in this particular study. The dividends are unlikely to show that fast."
Richard Sullivan, director of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK, said: "We’re improving but we’re still chasing the northern European countries. The question is how do you step up a gear to change things for the future? There’s no reason we should be trailing behind Sweden and Denmark. There are two major problems: in treatment we have a serious problem with radiology and having enough people trained to do it. In diagnosis … for cultural and gender reasons people will ignore the first signs that there is something wrong. We need renewed education programmes to prevent this."
The Department of Health said: "Cancer services in England have made great improvements since we published the NHS cancer plan in 2000. Between 1996 and 2004 cancer mortality in people under 75 fell by nearly 16%. This equates to over 50,000 lives saved … But we know we still have much to do." It said that a new cancer plan was being worked on.
