John Baron MP hosts and addresses Less Survivable Cancers Reception

MP says focus on earlier diagnosis should improve survival rates

Yesterday John Baron MP, the Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer, hosted and addressed a Parliamentary reception in the Houses of Parliament for the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce. The reception was attended by MPs, research funders, GPs and healthcare professionals, and was also addressed by the Cancer Minister, Steve Brine MP.

The reception highlighted the fact that people with the six less survivable cancers – pancreatic, liver, brain, lung, oesophageal and stomach – in the UK have, on average, a 50% less chance of surviving beyond five years compared with patients with one of the 14 more survivable cancers.

John said,

“It is very concerning that someone diagnosed with one of these six cancers – pancreatic, liver, brain, lung, oesophageal and stomach – has, on average, just a 14% chance of living beyond five years after their cancer is detected. Whilst over the last 40 years the five-year survival rate has almost doubled for breast cancer, and tripled for prostate cancer, these six less survivable cancers are more or less as deadly as they were in the 1970s.”

“The APPGC’s success in getting NHS England to focus on Clinical Commissioning Groups’ one year cancer survival rates should encourage earlier diagnosis for all cancers. However, we need to do more to ensure that these less survivable cancers, as with rarer cancers generally, receive the appropriate attention, particularly when it comes to research funding, improving diagnosis and treatment.”