Difference in survival rate between different cancers bigger than ever

The difference in survival rates between different types of cancer is bigger than ever while overall improvements have slowed, a study reveals.

The proportion of UK patients surviving ten years or more ranges from 97 per cent for testicular cancer to just 4.3 per cent for pancreatic cancer.

Survival for all cancers combined has increased dramatically since the 1970s but the gains were almost three-times faster in the early 2000s than the early 2010s.

For a patient diagnosed in 2018, the likelihood of surviving cancer for at least a decade stands at 49.8 per cent compared to 23.7 per cent in the 1970s, researchers at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found.

Remarkably, the one year rate in 1971 was not even as high as the ten year rate in 2018.