Cancer survival rates 'double'

Improving cancer treatments have led to a doubling of survival rates in the last 30 years, a new study has shown.

The ten year survival rate for all cancers rose from 23.6 per cent 30 years ago to 46.2 per cent today, according to figures published this week by charity Cancer Research UK.

Nearly half – 49.6 per cent – of those diagnosed with cancer between 2000 and 2001 had a five year survival rate.

The biggest improvement occurred between 1991 and 2001, with the combined survival rate rising from 35.4 per cent to 46.2 per cent in that time.

Health screening and other measures to detect cancers earlier have been particularly effective, as has the greater use of specialist surgery.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, welcomed the news. He said: "We really are here to celebrate the success that has been achieved over the last 30 years with survival rates improving really quite dramatic."

The picture for different forms of cancer is varied. Survival rates have remained unchanged for pancreatic, lung and oesophageal cancers. However, the rates of improvement over the past 30 years have been particularly strong for colon, prostate and breast cancers.

The ten year survival rate for breast cancer, for example, is now 71.5 per cent. 
  
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