How spotting cancer early triples chance of survival

CANCER patients are three times more likely to survive if the illness is diagnosed early, figures reveal.

The news underlines how crucial it is that doctors and patients pick up on symptoms before tumours spread.

Analysis by Cancer Research UK found 80 per cent of patients with one of eight common cancers survive for at least ten years if the disease is detected in its early stages.

But this falls to just 25 per cent for patients diagnosed in the later stages, when tumours have spread to the bones, brain, lungs or other organs. Only last week, figures revealed that cancer survival rates in Britain lag ten years behind those in other Western countries, mainly due to late diagnosis. Experts say this is partly down to patients not seeking medical help early, as well as GPs missing certain ambiguous symptoms.

Around half of patients are diag- nosed in stage 1 – when the disease is confined to one organ, and stage 2 – in which it has spread to a small area of nearby tissue.

The other half are diagnosed in the later stages of 3 – where it has spread to the lymph nodes in the armpits or stomach, and stage 4 – when it has spread to the bones, liver, brain, lungs or other organs.

Researchers at Cancer Research UK looked at the survival rates for breast, cervical, bladder, bowel, womb, skin, ovarian and testicular cancers, which together account for more than 40 per cent of all cases in Britain. The tenyear survival rates were the highest for patients diagnosed in stage 1, at 90 per cent, falling to just 5 per cent for those who had already reached stage 4.

Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK, said: ‘These figures show the prize on offer if we can diagnose more cancers earlier.’