A comprehensive statistic resource for life and health professionals.
Please click on one of the letters to view the individual statistics.
Cancer
- One in three people will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. Cancer is a disease that affects mainly older people, with 65% of cases occurring in those over age 65
- As the average life expectancy in the UK has almost doubled since the mid nineteenth century the population at risk of cancer has grown. It is estimated that around 1/3 of all cancers are caused by smoking and 1/3 by diet
- In 2000, more than 270,000 new cases of cancer were registered in the UK. There are over 200 different types of cancer but the four major types, lung, breast, prostate and colorectal, account for over half of all cases diagnosed
- Leukaemia is the most common cancer in children representing one third of all cases. In young men aged 20 – 39, testicular cancer is the most frequently occurring cancer
- Non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) is very common, with more than 62,000 new cases registered each year
- Of the 15 most commonly diagnosed cancers in men, testicular cancer has the highest five-year relative survival at 95% and pancreatic cancer has the lowest at 2%. In recent years there have been big increases in the five-year survival rates for prostate cancer
- These improvements largely reflect an increasing number of men being diagnosed with very early state prostate cancer as a result of widespread use of prostate specific antigen testing. Most men diagnosed at a very early stage will die with prostate cancer but not from it, therefore the survival rate has increased.
- In women, breast cancer, malignant melanoma and cancer of the uterus all have five-year relative survival of over 70%. Of the 15 most commonly diagnosed cancers in women, oesophageal, lung and pancreatic cancer have survival rates of less than 10%
- Cancer is the cause of a quarter (26%) of all deaths in the UK. Deaths from cancer outnumber deaths from heart disease. In 2002, there were 155,180 deaths from cancer
- Lung cancer, with its low survival rates is the biggest cancer killer in the UK. On average 92 people die every day from lung cancer in the UK. Over one fifth (22%) of all cancer deaths were from lung cancer, and a quarter (24%) from cancers of the large bowel, breast and prostate
- Cancers cause an even greater proportion of deaths in those under the age of 65, when more than one in three (37%) deaths are caused by cancer. When the sexes are separated, this proportion is even greater for women, with 47% of deaths caused by cancer. In men under 65, cancer is responsible for approximately 31% of deaths.
Source: Cancer Research
