Latest cancer research publications show decline in cancer deaths and where improvements in cancer care can be made
First published on 14 March 2024
- Cancer
Public Health Scotland (PHS) has contributed to three studies recently published on cancer deaths, incidences, and treatments.
A study led by Cancer Research UK, published today by the British Medical Journal, shows a substantial decline in cancer-related deaths over the last 25 years in men and women aged 35-69.
The study analysed cancer incidence rates and mortality trends across the UK between 1993 and 2018 and common cancers for both men and women, like lung and bowel, have shown significant reductions in mortality. Reductions in mortality have also been seen in breast and prostate cancers, although they have dominated the incidence trends with cases increasing over the period.
Authors attribute the reduction in cancer-related deaths during this time to successes in cancer prevention, such as smoking cessation policies, earlier detection and screening programmes, improved diagnostic tests, and more effective treatments.
Catherine Thomson, Service Manager for Cancer and Adult Screening at PHS and contributing author said:
“Results from this study note the impact and benefit of national cancer screening programmes. These have led to an increase in the numbers of cancers being picked up early, potentially, before the point where people experience symptoms. For breast cancer, screening combined with the many new different treatment options now available, means more women are living longer after their cancer diagnosis.
“Smoking is the biggest preventable cause of cancer and the reduction in smoking over the 25 years has led to a fall in deaths from lung cancer, and several other cancers. We also know that the second largest cause of cancers is obesity. If we want to see cancer deaths continuing to fall in the future, more needs to be done to address this, much like the efforts used to tackle smoking.”
PHS has also contributed to cancer treatment studies by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership. This is a collaboration looking at where improvements in cancer care might be made by benchmarking cancer information across countries from Europe, America, Australia and the UK.
Two population-based studies from the Partnership published in The Lancet Oncology, explore the variation in use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Professor David Morrison, Director of the Scottish Cancer Registry, PHS said:
“These recent publications raise questions about why there are differences in the uses of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in other countries, as well as in waiting times for cancer treatment in Scotland.
“We need to understand whether differences in treatment can be explained by the differing needs of patients in Scotland. To help answer these questions, PHS has developed a dashboard reporting on the use of chemotherapy across NHS Scotland and is also linking data on waiting times with other measures of health and treatment to better understand any effects on patients’ outcomes.”
PHS collaborates with a range of partners to collect, analyse and interpret comprehensive data on the whole cancer pathway to ensure intelligence to improve cancer treatment and survival is available.
Paper published in the BMJ:
Papers published in The Lancet Oncology: