Macmillan Cancer Support this Thursday revealed warning estimates that four in 10 people in the UK will get cancer at some point in their lives, up from one in three a decade ago. Cancer experts now believe 42% of Britons will get the disease.
Macmillan Cancer Support has revised the figure after its researchers analyzed official data covering diagnosis of cancer, death from the disease and overall mortality. Of the 585,000 people who died in the UK in 2008, 246,000 of them – 42% – had been diagnosed with cancer at some point.
The increased cancer rate is mainly a consequence of increased longevity in the population say experts. Older people are simply more likely to develop cancer. Up to the age of 50, the risk is only one in 36 for men and one in 21 for women. Survival rates have doubled since the 1960s thanks to better screening and earlier diagnosis. In 2008 around 89,000 who had been diagnosed with cancer died from other causes.
The rising cancer rate certainly poses a challenge. “It is alarming that the number of people who will get cancer is now well past one in three, and that there are so many more people with cancer today than even 10 years ago,” said Ciaran Devane, Macmillan's chief executive. “These figures highlight the increasing impact that cancer can have on so many of our lives,” said Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs.
About 310,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008, and 157,000 died from it. The number of people developing the disease is estimated to be rising by 3.2% a year because of ageing and other factors such as increasing obesity and some cancers emerging later in people's lives, after they have spent many years smoking. Devane added, “There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK and that number is doubling to 4 million over the next 20 years. Yet no one thinks the country can afford to double its spending on cancer.”
“Survival rates have doubled over the last 40 years, and this is one of the success stories of modern medicine,” said Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK's science information manager. Gerada agreed saying, “Thanks to clinical advances and brilliant research, we are now more likely to know people living with cancer, rather than dying from it. If diagnosed early enough, cancers such as breast, skin and colon cancers are treatable, and many patients will go on to live long and healthy lives. Early diagnosis is vital, and this depends largely on patients presenting to their GPs as early as possible, and GPs having greater access to diagnostics.” GPs are working hard to improve their early diagnosis of cancer, added Gerada.
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