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Cancer survival rate, life expectancy go up

Enhanced life of 10 yrs

New delhi: Half of all people diagnosed with cancer today (2010-11) are expected to survive from their cancer for at least 10 years, compared to just a quarter of people diagnosed 40 years ago (1971-72), according to a new index of survival for all cancers combined, published in The Lancet.

Experts noticed that although some cancers have a good prognosis, the outlook for others remains extremely poor.

For instance, while 98% of men with testicular cancer survive from their cancer for at least a decade after diagnosis, up from 69% 40 years ago, just 1% of pancreatic cancer patients diagnosed today are expected to survive from their cancer 10 years.

Led by the Cancer Research UK Cancer Survival Group at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, the researchers analysed survival trends for more than seven million adults (aged 15 to 99 years) diagnosed with one of 21 common cancers in England and Wales between 1971 and 2011, and followed up to the end of 2012.

The 21 cancers clearly divided into three groups with either high, moderate, or low survival. The groups have remained much the same for 40 years.

For cancers of the brain, stomach, lung, oesophagus and pancreas, 10-year survival after diagnosis is still below 15%.

There has been little or no improvement in long-term survival from these diseases since the early 1970s.

Even today, only 5% of those diagnosed with lung cancer are expected to survive from their cancer for 10 years after diagnosis," Lancet said. Despite more than doubling in the last 40 years, 10-year survival for people diagnosed with a brain tumour also remains very low at 14%.

"These five cancers impose a huge public health burden, both because they are common and because they are often diagnosed at a late stage, when they are much harder to treat," lead author Bernard Rachet from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine explains.

Survival to 10 or more years after diagnosis is generally above 70% for cancers of the breast, prostate, testis and uterus, and for melanoma and Hodgkin’s disease, and improvement in survival is greatest for these cancers.

For example, more than three-quarters (78%) of women with breast cancer are now surviving from their cancer for at least 10 years after diagnosis, up from 40% in the early 1970s.

For people diagnosed with melanoma, 10-year survival has almost doubled in the last 40 years, rising from 46% to 90%.

The analysis also confirms a persistent "age gap" in survival between younger and older patients for all cancers.

( Source : dc )
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