Survival rates for most deadly cancers making little progress, experts warn
The number of people who have survived cancer has increased in recent years in the last 50 years, but experts warn that change has been uneven, with some cancers having the highest survival rates falling further behind. For those that include melanoma skin cancer, 10-year survival in England and Wales is now over 90%, while for all cancers, half the patients will live for at least a decade, up from the figures in the early 1970s. However, a London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine report showed that there had been no change in those affecting the oesophagus, stomach, and lungs, with less than 5% surviving pancreatic cancer for ten years. With a new plan that is expected to be announced shortly, the government said it was committed to making more progress.
The researchers said that advances in medicine and earlier detection were responsible for many cancers' survival rates. Breast cancer is a classic example of this, with 10-year survival rates up from 42 percent to more than 76% between 1971 and 2018. An NHS breast screening service was introduced during this period, as well as targeted therapies for various types of breast cancer. In comparison, the cancers with the lowest survival rates tend to be the most difficult to detect and have the fewest treatment options. The study also includes pancreatic cancer, stomach, and lung cancer, among other things, which have 10-year survival rates below 20%, despite only a small amount of change since the 1970s. This has resulted in a drastic increase in the gap between the cancers with the highest and worst survival rates.
'Amazing job'
Matt Black is someone with firsthand knowledge of how the type of cancer you get makes a huge difference. The 60-year-old died of pancreatic cancer in 2019 in Harriette, 20 years after his father-in-law died of oesophageal cancer. He was diagnosed with bowel cancer five years ago, which has elevated survival rates. He had surgery and was given the all-clear shortly after suffering from gastrointestinal problems.
It's so critical that there is more research and help for cancer treatment here,NHS employees do an amazing job, but being a cancer patient is particularly difficult, particularly those with cancerous tumors that are impossible to detect or treat.
Matt says,so that more people will be as fortunate as me. The researchers also warned that although overall survival was still rising, the rate of change had slowed during the 2010s. Longer waits for diagnosis and treatment are thought to be partially to blame.
Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, which funded the study.Most patients today are much more likely to die from cancer than at any other time in history,
The charity needs the government's new plan to focus on,But the truth is that this growth is slowing, and for some cancers, it never got started in the first place.
The national cancer strategy will specify how we can raise survival rates and address the unacceptable difference between various cancer types," he explained. Get all the headlines you need to start the day with our flagship newsletter. Sign up here.a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said cancer care was a top priority. Waiting times have already been reduced, with some strides already being made.
