Results of EUROCARE 5 are out and according to the findings, cancer survival across Europe has improved a lot, but UK is still behind the best in the game.

The report is based on the analysis of data between 1995 up to 2007 involving 10 million patients. The report notes that while cancer survival in UK and Ireland has improved, these two countries are still behind the best performers during that period.

Findings suggest a direct association between cancer survival rate in a region to that region’s gross domestic product (GDP) and total national expenditure on health (TNEH) – higher the GDP and TNEH, the higher was the cancer survival rate. However, researchers did also find exceptions to this association as Demark and UK have continued to increase their health expenditure, but their cancer survival rates are still low.

The largest variation was seen among patients diagnosed with certain forms of blood cancer, likely due to recent advances in treatment that had not been made available equally across the continent, Sant said.

Nick Ormiston-Smith, Cancer Research UK’s head of statistics, cautioned that the data only covered patients diagnosed up to 2007. The report doesn’t showcase the more recent improvements that have happened in the UK; however, he does acknowledge that the numbers shouldn’t be ignored.

“But these figures shouldn’t be ignored, as they highlight that the UK has some way to go to get its cancer survival figures to match the best performing countries in Europe. Survival is improving in the UK, but not fast enough”, Ormiston-Smith said.

Oesophageal cancer was one cancer where survival in UK and Ireland improved faster than in other countries, which, according to Ormiston-Smith, is likely to be down to earlier diagnosis and more effective treatment.

Professor Peter Naredi, co-chair of the 2015 ECCO Cancer Congress, where the data were presented, said the study highlighted the importance of following trends in cancer survival.

“When we improve diagnostics and treatments of a cancer type it does not take long to improve survival for that patient population as well,” he said.

But he cautioned that improved survival does not come without government spending.

“I hope this will continue to encourage the European community to spend money on cancer care and research,“ he added.

The findings of the study have been published as a series of reports in the European Journal of Cancer.