Major investment key to cancer survival improvement

A new University College London report has warned that the UK will fall even further behind other wealthy nations for lung cancer survival rates without major investment.

Researchers from the university’s School of Pharmacy says that the five-year survival rate for patients in Britain stands at about 15 per cent compared with over 20 per cent in Australia, Canada and the US. Therefore, the report argues, the NHS must invest more in earlier diagnosis and treatment otherwise improvements in other countries will surpass advances in the UK.

Part of this should see the five-year lung cancer survival targets raised to 35 per cent by 2030, alongside a new proactive national cancer strategy, supporting UK-wide investment in both early diagnosis and treatment and world-class care for people with advanced cancers.

With regard to lung cancer, the authors argue the NHS should invest more not only in smoking prevention and early detection and treatment via lung health screening programmes but also in later stage disease care improvement in all parts of the country. It calls for clear UK-wide commitment to achieving a 25 per cent five-year lung cancer survival rate by 2025 and for setting an NHS target of 35 per cent five-year survival by 2030.

David Taylor, author of the research paper, said: “The NHS has struggled to close the cancer survival gap. It needs to set ambitious outcome targets for the 2020s. Earlier diagnosis coupled with rapid and well-coordinated treatment provision is part of the answer. But as more effective ways of controlling advanced cancers become available the health service should ensure that there is flexible and timely access for patients of all ages and social classes in all parts of the country to the full range of diagnostic, surgical, radio-therapeutic and drug interventions needed for achieving individual clinical care excellence. This is a desirable and affordable goal for our publicly funded health care system.”