The number of patients being cured of cancer is steadily climbing across Europe, a major study published today shows, but cure rates in England and Scotland trail those in many other countries.
Cancer statisticians normally talk in terms of three,- five-or 10-year survival. In a paper in a special issue of the European Journal of Cancer, however, a collaboration by scientists from a number of countries including the UK has for the first time pinned down the proportions cured - with life expectancy the same as if they had not developed cancer.
Cure rates varied widely across Europe and across cancer types. But for all cancers combined, Iceland had the highest cure rate among men, at 47%, and France and Finland among women (59%). The country where patients were least likely to be cured of their cancer was Poland (21% of men and 38% of women).
England and Scotland did less well than most of the 15 European countries whose performance was analysed. About a third (34.5%) of men diagnosed with cancer between 1988 and 1999 in England were considered cured, as were half (49.8%) of women. Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Switzerland were among the countries that did better for both men and women.
Denmark, the Czech Republic and Poland had the lowest proportion of cured lung cancer patients (less than 5%), while France and Spain had the highest (more than 10%). England cured 6.3% and Scotland 5.1%. For colorectal cancer, less than 30% were cured in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, but 49% were cured in France. In England 39.9% were cured and in Scotland 39.2%.
In Finland, France, Spain and Sweden, about 73% of breast cancer patients were cured, while less than 60% were cured in the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia. The rate was 67.4% in England and 66.3% in Scotland.
The scientists, from the Eurocare-4 working group, looked at two periods: from 1988 to 1990 and from 1997 to 1999. They found the proportion of patients estimated to have been cured of lung, stomach and colorectal cancers increased from 6% to 8%, from 15% to 18% and from 42% to 49%, respectively.
Professor Michel Coleman, a cancer epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a leading member of the Eurocare group, said he hoped the new data would not be used to form league tables, because some countries, such as the UK, had fuller cancer data than others.
Large improvements in survival and cure as a result of the UK's cancer plan and increased investment in care had yet to be seen. "I think these things move more slowly than most people would wish," he said.
"The NHS is a big beast. We are a big country. It is complex. I don't think we should expect a super-quick catch-up."