Cancer Survival
Survival rates improved during 2001-2007
Five year relative survival rates for selected cancers: for adults diagnosed during 2001-2006, England
Survival rates for most of the 21 common cancers improved in England, but declined for bladder and Hodgkin's disease, over the period 2001-2007 compared with the period 2000-2005.
For the majority of cancers, a higher proportion of women than men survived for at least five years after diagnosis (known as five-year survival). However, women diagnosed with bladder cancer had lower survival compared with men (47.1 per cent compared with 56.6 per cent). Age is also an important factor. Among adults, the younger the age at diagnosis, the higher the survival rate for almost every cancer.
In men the highest five-year survival was for testicular cancer - 96.2 per cent for those diagnosed during 2001-2006 and followed up for survival to the end of 2007. For women the highest five-year survival rate (89.6 per cent) was for malignant melanoma of the skin.
Pancreatic cancer had the lowest five-year survival for both men (2.8 per cent) and women (3.1 per cent).
During 2001-2007, prostate cancer survival five years after diagnosis was 77.0 per cent. This was 1.2 percentage points higher than the corresponding survival rate for the period 2000-2005.
Breast cancer survival at five years among women diagnosed during 2001-2006 was 82.0 per cent. This was 0.9 per cent higher than the survival rate for women diagnosed between 2000 and 2004 and followed up for survival to the end of 2005.
The five-year survival from colon cancer was 49.7 per cent for men and 51.1 per cent for women. Survival increased by 0.6 percentage points in men and 1.0 percentage points in women, compared with the diagnosis period 2000-2004.
Five-year survival for lung cancer patients diagnosed during 2001-2006 was 6.9 per cent in men, which was 0.4 percentage points higher than for men diagnosed during 2000-2004. In women, five-year survival from lung cancer was 8.7 per cent, which was 0.5 percentage points higher than the earlier period.
Among women, five-year survival from Hodgkin's disease declined from 82.4 per cent for patients diagnosed during 2000-2004, to 81.3 per cent for patients diagnosed during 2001-2006.
Source: Office for National Statistics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) which is funded in part by a grant from Cancer Research UK
Notes: This analysis, on patients diagnosed during 2001-2006 with one of 21 common adult cancers and followed up to December 2007 in England, updates data titled 'Survival Rates in England, patients diagnosed 2000-2004 followed up to 2005' published on the Office for National Statistics website on 10 December 2008.
Relative survival is the ratio of the observed survival in the group being studied and the survival that would have been expected had they been subject to the mortality rates of the general population.
The five-year relative survival rates are for adults (ages 15-99) and have been age-standardised to control for changes in the age profile of cancer patients over time. This enables figures for different time periods to be compared.
The decline in survival from bladder cancer is because transitional cell papillomas were reclassified from malignant to non-malignant tumours beginning in 2000. Non-malignant tumours are excluded from our analysis. Survival from transitional cell papillomas is high and excluding them from the analysis decreases the overall estimate of survival from bladder cancer.
Hodgkin's disease is a rare, malignant tumour of the lymphatic system, which mainly affects the lymph nodes.
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Cancer Survival, England