We investigated how cancer survival has changed over nearly 50 years (1971 to 2018) in England and Wales. The primary metric is an index of cancer survival for all cancers combined, which adjusts for changes in the overall cancer case mix (by cancer site, age, and sex) over time.
Trends in this cancer survival index are a key indicator of progress in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Adjusting for case mix means the figures are not skewed by higher-survival cancers sites (e.g. prostate cancer) making up an increasingly large proportion of cases.
Ten-year survival for all cancers combined in England and Wales has doubled, from 24% for cases diagnosed in 1971-72 to 50% for those diagnosed in 2018. However, the pace of progress has slowed in recent years – survival improved three to five times faster in earlier decades than it did between 2010-11 and 2018.
Since the 1970s, survival for all cancers combined has been about ten percentage-points higher in women compared with men at all intervals up to 10 years after diagnosis.
For most cancers, 10-year survival in England and Wales has improved steadily since the 1970s. The size of improvement varies by type of cancer, and for most cancers progress has not been linear.
The slowdown in cancer survival progress may be partly due to longer waits for diagnosis and treatment, highlighting the need for renewed focus on improving cancer services including through a national cancer plan.
Read in full on the Lancet websiteMichel P. Coleman, Melissa Matz, Pamela Minicozzi, Veronica Di Carlo, Dyfed Huws, Stephanie Smits, Jon Shelton, Claudia Allemani.
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