Improvements in the survival rates of cancer in England and Wales have been considerably delayed since 2010, according to a large study released on Wednesday, which leads to calls to an urgent national cancer plan.
The study, conducted by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, measured the survival index for 10.8 million adults diagnosed with cancer between 1971 and 2018, good for variables such as age, gender and cancer type.
It found substantial improvements during the 48 years, with the five-year survival index increasing from 28.8% in 1971-72 to 56.6% in 2018.
However, the pace of progress has been delayed in recent years.
The 10-year survival index improved by 4% between 2000-01 and 2005-06 and only 1.4% between 2010-11 and 2015-16.
The delay since 2010 “is probably at least partially explained by longer waiting times for diagnosis and treatment,” said the report.
The delay has been observed with many individual cancers, “what a system -wide challenge implies,” said the study, funded by the Charity Cancer Research UK.
The most striking is that the 10-year survival index for chest, cervix, rectum, prostate, testis and uterine cancer decreased in the last 10-15 years, while the index for larynx cancer decreased.
Survival of pancreatic cancer, at 4.3% in 2018, has shown minimal change since 1971-72.
The study calls for a “new, long -term National Cancer Plan” to “reduce the survival trends from cancer to the best in the world”.
Since 2000, national cancer strategies have been part of the health policy in England and Wales.
The fourth national cancer strategy was published in 2015, but is now considered outdated because the current process has not been agreed to match its ambitious goals.
Plans for a fifth plan were withdrawn in January 2023, “leaving England as one of the few countries with a high income in which a national cancer plan was not a central pillar of the national health policy,” the report said.
