18 years of national cancer plans and survival still poor

A STRING of national cancer strategies have failed to close the survival gap with Europe, a study has found.

Although cancer survival rates in Britain have steadily improved over the past two decades, we still lag behind the majority of Europe.

The study found that a series of strategies had done nothing to accelerate advances and close the gap. They had also failed to reduce the gulf in survival rates between the rich and poor.

The NHS Cancer Plan launched in 2000 to improve cancer survival to levels comparable with Europe. Other schemes followed, including the Cancer Reform Strategy in 2007, the National Cancer Equality Initiative in 2008, and the National Awareness and Early Diagnosis Initiative in 2008.

The researchers, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, assessed the impact of these strategies in England by analysing the records of 3.5million patients with 24 of the most common cancers, including prostate, lung and breast cancer.

The authors first analysed records between 1996 and 2000 – before the first plan was launched. The team compared these figures to those between 2001 and 2005, and then again with patients between 2006 and 2013.

One-year survival improved at a similar rate from 1996 for more than half of the cancers, suggesting the strategies had little impact, the British Medical Journal reports. For nine cancers, such as kidney cancer in women and brain cancer in men, survival rates increased from 2001 to 2006 – but only by 1 and 2 per cent a year.

People from poorer backgrounds continue to experience the worst prognosis, with ‘deprivation gaps’ remaining as high as 7 per cent for men and 9 per cent for women. Emma Greenwood, Cancer Research UK’s director of policy, said that although England’s success in dealing with cancer still lagged behind other comparable countries, overall survival had been improving since 2000.

The Department of Health said: ‘Cancer survival rates are at a record high. This government is committed to investing in the discovery of new treatments and access to the best drugs.’