3 out of 4 patients ‘will survive cancer for at least 10 years’

THREE out of four cancer patients will survive for at least ten years after diagnosis within the next decade, experts predict.

They have hailed ‘fantastic changes in survival rates’ in recent years which are set to accelerate even further.

This is down to new techniques to diagnose cancer which are enabling many more tumours to be detected at an early stage, when they can be removed. At the same time, revolutionary procedures and drugs mean patients whose cancers were once deemed terminal are now expected to live for ten to 20 years.

Leading researchers told the world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago that by 2027, three-quarters of patients in the UK and US could expect to live for at least a decade.

Currently, half of patients diagnosed with cancer in the UK can expect to live for at least ten years and survival rates are similar in the US.

But Dr David Graham, of the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina, said there was ‘great promise’ for improve- ments. He said that ‘within the next decade’, 75 per cent of cancer patients in the UK and US could expect to live at least ten years. This is the survival time at which doctors and researchers consider patients to be cured of the illness.

‘We are already seeing fantastic changes in survival rates already,’ he said.

‘There are a number of cancers already that have become chronic, manageable diseases.’ Dr Graham said recent breakthroughs were enabling patients with apparently terminal cancer to live for five years – and many are expected to survive much longer.

These include immunotherapy – a drug which teaches the body’s immune system to fight tumours – which has been hailed as a ‘new era’ in cancer treatment. It is proving particularly effective for lung cancer, skin cancer and kidney cancer, which just five years ago were considered incurable.

Dr Richard Schilsky, chief medical officer at the American Society for Clinical Oncology, added: ‘A combination of better screening, earlier diagnosis and more effective therapy are contributing to slow but steady improvements in cancer therapy.

‘We can be extremely hopeful that we’ve come very far and the pace of progress is accelerating.

‘As we improve our diagnostic strategies, we can pick up cancers at an earlier and earlier stage. The majority of cancer patients are cured. It’s still the majority of metastic patients (cancer which has spread) who aren’t cured at the present time but we’re continuing to make progress even in those cases.’

A major analysis by Cancer Research UK in 2014 found that 49.8 per cent of patients diagnosed with cancer can expect to live at least ten years.

But survival rates vary hugely between the types of cancer and the stage at which they are diagnosed.

For breast cancer, which is usually detected early, 78 per cent of patients can expect to live for ten years or more. But this falls to just 5 per cent for lung cancer and less than 1 per cent for pancreatic cancer, which are both usually detected late. Researchers believe new diagnosis techniques will enable many more patients to be diagnosed at an early stage, when tumours are small and can be removed.

Earlier this week scientists unveiled results from a revolutionary blood test that can diagnose cancer up to ten years before symptoms appear.

Eluned Hughes, of Breast Cancer Now, said: ‘Our ambition is that by 2050 everyone who develops breast cancer will live.’

Yoga improves the quality of life for women with breast cancer, research shows.

Researchers believe yoga lowers the stress hormone cortisol which makes patients more relaxed and better able to cope with side effects. It also helps them sleep, meaning they are less exhausted.

Dr Nita Nair, of the Tata Memorial Centre in Mumbai, India, said yoga was a ‘discipline which encourages healthy mind and body practises’.

She said it should be used as a ‘complimentary therapy’ for cancer around the world.

‘Continuing to make progress’