People suffering from some of the most common forms of cancer are twice as likely to survive for at least 10 years, compared with patients diagnosed in the early 1970s, research showed today.
Breast, bowel and prostate cancer survival rates have shot up, as have those for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and leukaemia. The study, for Cancer Research UK, compared data on 10-year survival rates of patients diagnosed with cancer in 1971-72 with the expected survival rates of those diagnosed in 2007. On average it found that 45.2% of cancer patients are now expected to survive at least 10 years, compared with 23.7% in the 1970s.
One of the most notable improvements was recorded for prostate cancer patients – nearly 70% of whom are now expected to survive for at least 10 years, compared with 20% in 1971-72.
Cancer rates
The survival rate for those with leukaemia is still relatively low, with 33.2% of patients likely to live for at least 10 years in 2007. But this still represents a fourfold improvement since the early 1970s, when only 8.1% of patients were expected to survive more than 10 years.
The percentage of women likely to survive breast cancer for at least 10 years has jumped from less than 40% to 77%, while the figure for both sexes for bowel cancer has risen from 23% to 50%.
Twice as many women with ovarian cancer now survive (18% to 35%) while for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, survival has leapt from 22% to 51%.
While 10-year survival is still low for oesophageal cancer and myeloma (both below 20%), it is thought to have trebled over the same period.
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Forty years ago the chances of surviving conditions including leukaemia, brain cancer and lymphoma were poor, and a diagnosis was considered little better than a death sentence among parents and many doctors.
Just over a quarter (28 per cent) survived to see adulthood.
But thanks to advances in treatments including chemotherapy and radiotherapy the statistics have swung the other way.
Seventy-eight per cent now survive for at least five years from diagnosis, widely considered the point at which the ‘all-clear’ is given.
The death rate from all childhood cancers has dropped by almost 60 per cent, according to figures from Cancer Research UK.
Between 1966 and 1970 it was 73.4 per million; while between 2001 and 2005 it was 31.9 per million.
When individual classes of childhood cancer are examined the turnaround is even more dramatic.
Among leukaemias – cancers of the blood, that account for almost a third of childhood cancers – the five-year survival rate has increased from nine per cent to more than 80 per cent.
Among brain tumours – the second most common class of childhood cancer, accounting for a quarter of them – the rate has risen from less than 40 per cent to about 70 per cent.
But not all cancers have seen such improvements. For example, the five-year survival rate for certain gliomas – a type of brain tumour – is only 44 per cent.
Dr Pam Kearns, director of the Cancer Research UK Children’s Cancer Trials Team, said: “More children are beating cancer thanks to the transformation and improvements of treatments over the last 30 years, with ways of treating the disease offering greater hope to children diagnosed with cancer.
“We need to continue this work so that every child who is diagnosed with cancer has the best possible chance of beating the disease.”
Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “These new figures show that years of hard work by researchers across the world are paying off.
“Cancer Research UK is the largest single funder of research into childhood cancers in the UK, spending over £9 million every year. This research will lead to even more success stories for children diagnosed with cancer in the future.”
Cancer among children is mercifully rare, with about 30 new diagnoses every week in Britain. However, besides the impact on the health and wellbeing of the child, the impact on the family can be severe.
Dara de Burca, Director of Services at the childhood cancer charity CLIC Sargent, said:
“To be told that your child has cancer is always a huge shock, but the news that almost eight out of ten children who are diagnosed now survive – thanks to research into treatment and causes – gives parents real hope and reassurance.
“But surviving childhood cancer doesn’t mean that life goes back to normal. As well as potential long-term health issues, children may have missed or fallen behind at school, lost touch with friends, and their whole family has had their lives turned upside down.”
Medics are still grappling with one side-effect of otherwise successful intensive anti-cancer treatments – that they can rob children of their future fertility. According to fertility experts one in 250 young adults in the US is now a childhood cancer survivor.
There is genuinely encouraging health news to celebrate this week: survival rates for many cancers have doubled in four decades, and patients suffering from certain cancers are now twice as likely to survive as those diagnosed in the Seventies. The percentage of women surviving breast cancer has jumped from below 40 per cent to 77 per cent, and rates for bowel cancer survival have gone from 23 per cent to more than 50 per cent. Even prostate cancer has shown massive improvements: almost seven out of 10 men affected can expect to live for 10 years compared with one in five in the Seventies.
Our scientists and oncologists can pat themselves on the back and celebrate remarkable successes. They are clearly doing their jobs well, developing a better understanding of cancer and a more effective armoury of weapons to fight it.
Thanks to enormous investment by Cancer Research UK we now have faster diagnosis, more effective radiotherapy, better surgery and many new drugs. No victory parade through the streets and a meeting with the Prime Minister for the medics, however — football is still far more important.
But despite the good news about survival rates, the UK does lag behind Europe, which has even better figures. The reason? Could it be that we are still reticent about asking healthcare professionals for advice, preferring to ignore things and hope they’ll go away? For men, that is certainly the case. We don’t seem to take any interest in our health until things actually start to go wrong, by which time it may be too late. Treatments are more effective and less arduous if instituted early, and cancers are mostly curable if treatment is started before it has a chance to spread.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/article-23855990-were-beating-cancer-but-you-have-to-help.do