Cancer survival rates in Britain are worst of western Europe

BRITAIN has the worst cancer survival rate in western Europe, according to the largest-ever study of the disease involving more than 20 million patients.

Research comparing 29 countries shows survival rates in Sweden are almost one third higher than in the UK. Only patients in eastern Europe and the Balkans fare worse than those in Britain.

The report, presented to the European Cancer Congress in Vienna, compared overall survival across a host of different types of cancers.

It shows that, despite investment in attempts to diagnose cases earlier and speed up access to treatment, there has been no narrowing of the gap between Britain and other developed nations.

Experts said the major differences reflected poor rates of early diagnosis in this country, with one in five cancers not spotted until a patient arrives at an Accident & Emergency department.

The data, the latest Europe-wide sta- tistics available, cover diagnoses up to 2007. Five-year survival in England was recorded as 50.2 per cent, compared with 64.7 per cent in Sweden.

Countries such as France, Italy and Germany all did far better than the UK, which was on a par with the Czech Republic. The Eurocare study, published in the

European Journal of Cancer, examined patient survival for common cancers.

Five-year breast cancer survival was 79.1 per cent in England, 78.5 per cent in Scotland and 78.2 per cent in Wales. In Sweden the figure is 86 per cent, with a European average of 81.8 per cent.

In England, 80.3 per cent of men with prostate cancer were alive five years later, compared with a European average of 83.4 per cent. In Wales the figure is 78 per cent, and in Scotland it is 78.8 per cent.

For bowel cancer, five-year survival in England is 51.3 per cent, with a figure of 53.9 per cent in Scotland, and 49.9 per cent in Wales. The European average was 57 per cent.

Dr Rosie Loftus, the joint chief medical officer at Macmillan Cancer Support, said GPs needed more help diagnosing cancer and quicker access to tests. The Health Secretary has announced that from 2020 patients with suspected cancer will be given a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within a month.

Two drugs for advanced kidney cancer could dramatically improve survival, destroying tumours in some cases, research has found.

Nivolumab, which disarms the immune system, extended survival by almost six months, compared with standard treatment. Cabozantinib, which blocks enzymes, was found to slow disease progression by twice as long as standard treatment, the research in the