Battle against cancer in UK stalls for first time in decades
THE nation’s cancer care suffered a double blow yesterday amid separate warnings on rising fatalities and disappointing progress in fighting the disease.
Researchers say that survival rates are improving at the slowest pace in half a century, while another study indicated the number of deaths is expected to soar by 50 per cent over the next 25 years.
Bosses at Cancer Research UK revealed that progress in battling the illness has stalled to levels last seen decades ago.
Written by experts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine,
‘Protecting future generations’
the report shows ten-year survival for all cancers combined jumped from 24 per cent in 1971/72 to 48 per cent by 2010/11.
But since then, the rate of improvement has climbed only two percentage points to 50 per cent. While the annual increases in survival rates averaged 2.7 per cent at the turn of the millennium, they typically rose just 0.6 per cent in the decade to 2018, the latest figures available.
It means survival was increasing three to five times faster in the decades prior to 2010. The slow progress has seen the UK fall behind countries including Australia, Canada, Denmark and Norway.
While research shows that cases caused by smoking continue to decline, those linked to obesity are going the opposite way – and cancers caused by alcohol intake, poor diets and lack of exercise are all on the rise.
Weight problems and obesity cause around 22,800 cases and 9,200 cancer deaths every year, with numbers expected to increase as the nation’s waistline expands.
But while the picture looks bleak, experts said it was ‘fixable’ if ministers committed to a ten-year strategy.
CRUK boss Michelle Mitchell said the slow rate of improvement was worrying, adding: ‘Decades of research by scientists and clinicians in the UK and around the world has led to many important discoveries and greatly increased our understanding of cancer.’
It came after a separate study said Britain’s ageing, growing population – along with the increase in obesity levels – means we are facing a cancer time bomb.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organisation said cancer cases in the UK will rise 37 per cent to 624,582 by 2050.
They said there were 181,807 deaths in 2022 due to cancer and this is expected to rise to 279,004 in 2050 – a 53 per cent increase.
An NHS spokesman said it was diagnosing and treating more people with cancer at an early stage than ever before, and survival rates were higher than ever.
He added: ‘But there is more to do, and the NHS continues to test and adopt the latest advances in treatments, alongside national awareness campaigns, screening programmes and new initiatives to increase early diagnosis – including taking lung and liver checks closer to people in the community and rolling out the latest genetic tests to identify people at risk of cancer early.’
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We are working to make access to cancer services faster and simpler. We have also invested £2.3billion into speeding up diagnosis and launched 153 community diagnostic centres across England, which will help us achieve our aim of catching 75 per cent of all cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028.
‘Our plans to stop children who are 15 this year or younger from ever legally being sold tobacco will protect future generations from various forms of cancer.’