Progress so far
1.2 Over the past three decades progress has been made in reducing the impact of cancer:
- Overall, mortality rates are falling
- Mortality rates for breast cancer have fallen by over 20% over the past decade - due to a combination of better treatment and the introduction of the national breast cancer screening programme
- Falls in the rate of smoking among men since the early 1970s have led to a marked fall in the incidence and death rate from lung cancer
- Overall, the number of people surviving more than five years has improved - an average of 4% every five years. These improvements are almost certainly due to a combination of earlier diagnosis and better treatment.
- Survival rates have improved dramatically for some cancers - especially for childhood cancers and testicular tumours. Almost two thirds of children and over 90% of men with testicular tumours are now cured.
- Cervical cancer mortality rates have fallen by 7% a year since the introduction of the national cervical screening programme. This means 8000 lives were saved between 1988 and 1997.
- Hospice and specialist palliative care services, (largely funded by charities) have been established across the country giving much needed support to patients with incurable disease and to their families.
1.3 The NHS has made progress in recent years in improving the organisation and delivery of cancer services. A comprehensive strategy on smoking is in place. There is strong support among health professionals for the strategy for cancer services set out in the Calman/ Hine Report and subsequent Improving Outcomes guidance, which are designed to spread best practice. And a new NHS Prostate Cancer Programme sets out new action and resources to deliver high class services and research for prostate cancer.
1.4 In the last three years the government has focused money and energy on driving up the quality of cancer services. Targeted resources totalling £80 million a year are being invested to improve standards and cut waiting times for cancer patients. And a total of well over £200 million is already being invested by the New Opportunities Fund and the government to modernise cancer equipment and improve access to palliative care.
1.5 Year on year the signs are that international medicine is slowly but surely extending its understanding of cancer and its capacity to treat it effectively. Many British medical researchers are playing a leading role in that work. Nearly a half of women and a third of men diagnosed now with cancer will live for at least five years and cancer survival rates are improving every year.
1.6 But while other developed countries have broadly similar incidence of cancer, there is evidence to suggest that, for many cancers, survival rates for patients diagnosed a decade ago are lower in this country than in comparable European countries.
