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Wide variations in cancer survival revealed

17/07/2008

Wide variations in cancer survival throughout the UK have been unveiled today by a worldwide study conducted by more than 100 researchers.

The study found that in the UK Wales had the lowest five-year survival for all cancers studied, while Northern Ireland had the highest for all except rectal cancer in women and prostate cancer.

Scotland was placed second and England third out of the four countries in the UK.

The survival difference between the best and worst performing UK countries ranged from five per cent in rectal cancer for women (Scotland/Wales) to 11 per cent for colon cancer in women (Northern Ireland/Wales).

Within England, the Trent region had the lowest survival for all cancers studied.

The best performing regions were the West Midlands (breast cancer, and colon cancer in men and women); East Anglia (rectal cancer in men); the south-west (rectal cancer in women and cancer of the colon and rectum overall in both men and women); and the south Thames region (prostate cancer).

Researchers behind the study say it is the first worldwide analysis of cancer survival and provides comparable data on 1.9 million adult cancer patients (aged between 15 and 99) from 101 cancer registries in 31 countries on five continents.

The highest survival recorded in the 31 nations was seen in the United States (breast and prostate cancer), Japan (colon and rectal cancers in men) and France (colon and rectal cancers in women).

Survival was also high for most cancers in Canada and Australia. Algeria had by far the lowest survival for all cancers studied in both men and women.

Europe as a whole had much lower cancer survival in all cancers analysed than America.

Writing in the Lancet Oncology, the researchers conclude that most of the global differences in survival "is probably attributable to differences in access to diagnostic and treatment services".

"International variation in survival in Europe has been associated with national levels of economic development, as measured by total national expenditure on health," they add.

"Survival is positively associated with gross domestic product and the amount of investment in health technology such as CT scanners. Part of the international variation in survival is thus probably attributable to under-investment in health resources."