Cancer charities slam survival rates
Cancer charities slam survival rates putting England well below European average
Tuesday, 01, Dec 2009 11:13
By Elizabeth Davies
Cancer Research UK has branded cancer survival rates "shocking", after new figures released today placed England well below the European average.
Professor Mike Richards blamed a failure to catch cancer early, telling the BBC's Today programme that "raising awareness and promoting early diagnosis are essential if we are to bring cancer survival rates up to the level of the best of Europe".
While the NHS currently uses statistics based on five-year survival rates, Professor Richards called for greater attention to be paid on those over one year. These figures provide a greater indication of whether patients' cancer is being noticed at a time when it can be treated. Early diagnosis clearly plays a role in five-year rates, but here access to drugs and treatment can have more of an influence on a patient's survival.
It is the first time local survival rates from cancer have ever been disclosed, and they show great disparity across English Primary Care Trusts. Lung cancer had the most variable survival rates of the so-called "big four". In Kensington and Chelsea, the survival rate was the best in England, with 44 per cent of patients surviving within a year of diagnosis. In Herefordshire, in contrast, the rate was only 15 per cent.
Cancer Research said these figures emphasised that "the cancer postcode lottery remains a real problem".
Professor Richards called on GPs to "play safe" with patients displaying cancer symptoms, but "Dr Crippen", a columnist for The Guardian, insisted GPs were not to blame. He said that instead the figures could be explained by a "lack of resources".
The report is the second to be released following the announcement of the government's Cancer Reform Strategy in 2007. The news is not all depressing. The NHS is close to meeting a 2010 goal to increase five-year survival rates by a fifth on the mid-1990s.
However, it is clear that without further action the chances of survival of English cancer patients will remain far below those of fellow sufferers in continental Europe.