Cancer death rates have dropped to their lowest level on record but continued action on prevention is key to keep progress from stalling, a charity has warned.
New figures from Cancer Research UK show around 247 in every 100,000 people in the UK are estimated to die from cancer in any given year – the lowest rate in records going back to 1971.
This is a 29% drop in cancer mortality rates from the peak of around 355 in every 100,000 people in 1989, the charity said.
The charity said the ’remarkable progress’ had been the result of major breakthroughs in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, made possible by a ‘golden age’ of cancer research.
But it also said that policy action to tackle preventable risk factors like smoking and screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancers had contributed to falling death rates. However, action is needed to ‘back life-saving innovation’ and stop the UK falling behind, it warned.
Dr Sam Godfrey, science engagement lead at Cancer Research UK, said the findings ‘represent decades of crucial scientific breakthroughs – from vaccines that prevent cancer to kinder, more targeted treatments’.
But Dr Godfrey said: ‘The UK has been a global leader in cancer research, but we can’t take progress for granted.
‘It’s essential that the government makes it easier and faster to set up clinical trials, as well as providing NHS staff with the time and space to carry out life-saving research.’
The government’s flagship National Cancer Plan, published last month, committed the NHS to meeting key cancer waiting time standards and promised patients faster diagnosis, quicker treatment and more support to live well.
By March 2029, the NHS will have to meet targets of: 85% of cancer patients starting treatment within 62 days of referral; 96% of patients starting treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat; and 80% of patients receiving a diagnosis or all-clear within 28 days of an urgent suspected cancer referral.
The charity said the cancer plan was an ‘important step’ towards improving cancer outcomes in England, but further was needed action to secure the UK’s status as a world-leader in cancer research, with clinical trials slower to start in the UK compared to the US, Australia and Spain.
It is calling for a single, joined-up system for setting up trials across the NHS to cut unnecessary red tape and speeding up approvals, as well as action to prioritise research within the health service, including through increasing the time staff can dedicate for research and innovation.
Meanwhile, England’s chief medical officer Sir Chris Whitty told a Medical Journalists’ Association event last week, that rates of some cancers ‘have gone way down’, such as HPV and stomach cancer, but ‘least treatable’ forms, such as lung and pancreatic cancers show sadder statistics.
Professor Whitty said he hoped the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will help address the fact that lung cancer is very preventable due to it being primarily driven by smoking.
