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Cancer survival rates in Britain lag behind virtually all comparable countries, the biggest ever international comparison has shown.

The study published today in the Lancet analyses population and mortality data covering two thirds of the world’s population and almost all developed countries.

It included data on the 3.7 million Brits diagnosed with cancer since 2000 and found that while survival rates are improving almost everywhere, the UK is failing to catch other developed nations.

Britain lags far behind for brain, stomach and blood cancers such as leukaemia.

The UK comes bottom when compared to other large EU nations when it comes to the chances of surviving the three most common cancers of the prostate, pancreas and lungs.

The release of the CONCORD-3 report comes a week after Dame Tessa Jowell had Lords in tears when highlighting the UK’s shocking underfunding of brain cancer and discussing her own terminal diagnosis.

It looked at 72,000 Brits diagnosed with brain cancer between 2000-2014 and found they now have just a 26.3% chance of surviving the disease for more than five years.

This is less than countries such as Germany at 29.6 per cent, Ireland at 34.5 per cent, Turkey at 35.6%, Puerto Rico at 36.3per cent, the USA at 36.5 per cent, Denmark at 38.9 per cent and Croatia at 42.2 per cent.

In the UK neurological cancers receive only 2 per cent of research monies and have had no new vital drugs for the past 50 years.

When compared to the 27 other EU countries for survival rates Britain came 14th for blood cancers and breast cancer, 16th for prostate cancer, 20th for pancreatic cancer, 21st for brain cancers and lung cancer, and 24th for stomach cancer.

Co-author Prof Michel Coleman, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “If you look at similar European countries the proportion of GDP the UK has spent on health in the last 10 to 15 years is low and has increased less than the others.

“This difference between the likes of Germany and France is likely to explain some of what we are seeing.

(Image: TASS)

“The number of medical specialists who deal with these diseases tends to be low compared to other comparable countries.”

When the largest five EU countries - Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain - were compared for the most common three cancers Britain came bottom for two of them.

Britain’s survival rates were worse than the other four for lung and prostate cancer and second worst for breast cancer.

When the most aggressive cancer was looked at - pancreatic cancer - the UK also fared worse than its large European neighbours.

Brits had just a 6.8 per cent chance of survival, less than 7.7 per cent in Spain, 8.6 per cent in France, 9.2 per cent in Italy and 10.7 per cent in Germany.

King’s Fund analysis for the period shows that in 2000 UK spending on healthcare was 6.3 per cent of GDP.

Then Prime Minister Tony Blair committed to matching the average for health spending as a percentage of GDP in the 14 other original member states which was then 8.5 per cent.

Spending increased to 8.8 per cent of GDP by 2009 but by then the EU-14 spend had moved on to 10.1 per cent but the gap had fallen.

(Image: Reuters)

Since the Tories came to power in 2010 then the gap has increased again falling to 7.3 per cent in 2014/15.

On current plans UK public spending on the NHS as a proportion of GDP it will fall to 6.6 per cent by 2020/21.

If spending kept pace with growth in the economy by 2020/21 the UK NHS would be spending around £158 billion at today’s prices – £16 billion more than planned.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is now using the CONCORD survival estimates to compare health system performance in 48 countries worldwide. The last time it was conducted it resulted in the CONCORD-2 database in 2015.

It uses individual patient records from 322 cancer registries in 71 countries and territories to compare 5-year survival from diagnosis for more than 37.5 million adults aged 15–99 years and children aged 0–14 years with one of 18 common cancers.

The survival chances are “corrected” for the risk of dying from other causes in each country so it measures the odds on surviving a particular cancer.

These cancers represent three-quarters of all cancers diagnosed worldwide every year between 2000 and 2014.

The publication comes before World Cancer Day on Sunday.

The CONCORD-3 report shows that 130,000 Brits diagnosed with blood cancers such as leukaemia fared much worse than some of their European neighbours.

Survival chances were just 48.7 per cent compared to 50.4 per cent in Canada, 51.5 per cent in Romania, 54.9 per cent in Germany, 55.4 per cent in Belgium and 57.5 per cent in France and Sweden.

Overall global cancer survival rates are improving.

The report concluded: “For most cancers, 5-year net survival remains among the highest in the world in the USA and Canada, in Australia

and New Zealand, and in Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

“For many cancers, Denmark is closing the survival gap with the other Nordic countries. Survival trends are generally increasing, even for some of the more lethal cancers.

“For some countries survival has increased by up to 5 per cent for cancers of the liver, pancreas, and lung.”

In the UK some cancers did show significant increases in 5-year survival between 2000 and 2014.

They included breast cancer improving from 80 per cent to 86 per cent, prostate cancer from 82 per cent to 89 per cent, rectal cancer from 55 per cent to 63 per cent and colon cancer from 52 per cent to 60 per cent.

(Image: TASS)

Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, said: “Studies like this show the pattern of cancer survival around the world and remind us that the UK is still lagging behind other nations.

“But it’s encouraging to see survival improving for many types of cancer and why this might be.

“The UK is home to some of the world’s best cancer clinicians and scientists, yet they are often having to operate under increasing pressure as our NHS faces immense strain from a growing and aging population.

“Urgent action is needed to improve early diagnosis for all. Health Education England’s immediate plans need to be fully funded and the Government must be prepared to meet this demand, now and into the future.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Cancer is a priority for this Government and survival rates are at a record high.

“Around 7,000 people are alive today who would not have been had mortality rates stayed the same as in 2010.

“We know there is more to do and NHS England is implementing the recommendations of the independent Cancer Taskforce to save a further 30,000 lives a year by 2020.”