EU-wide study finds cancer survival rates improving
Nordic countries, with the notable exception of Denmark, have the highest cancer survival rates in Europe, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology journal. The Eurocare study, which includes data from 83 cancer registries in 23 countries, found that cancer survival is improving across Europe. The wide gaps between survival rates in the EU's Member States are also narrowing. 'Increases in survival and decreases in geographic differences over time, which are mainly due to improvements in healthcare services in countries with poor survival, might indicate better cancer care,' Italian researcher Franco Berrino and colleagues wrote in The Lancet Oncology. The study found the survival rates for the five most common cancers - colorectal, lung, breast, prostate and ovarian cancer - were the best in Central Europe and most Nordic states, with the exception of Denmark. Next in the survival rate table comes Southern Europe, followed by Britain and Ireland, and then Eastern Europe. The researchers looked at what happened to 2.7 million new cancer patients between 1995 and 1999, and concluded that if all countries had the mean survival rate of 57% found in Norway, Sweden and Finland, there would be about 150,000, or 12%, fewer deaths in the five years after diagnosis. The scientists also found a clear link between high rates of survival and the amount a country spent on its healthcare, with the exception of Britain and Denmark, which fell behind other countries with similar national health budgets. In Britain, the five-year survival rate was about 42% for men and 52% for women, whereas the European averages were about 45% and 55%, respectively. Britain scored just a few percentage points more than Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic, despite spending far more on health care. 'If survival in one country is substantially lower than that in other countries, especially those of a similar wealth, the health system is probably not functioning as it should,' the researchers write. From Eastern Europe, Poland and the Czech Republic showed considerable improvement across the range of cancers in the period studied, suggesting that the former Eastern-bloc countries were closing the health gap. Between 1991 and 2002 survival rates in Eastern Europe improved from 30.3% to 44.7% for colorectal cancer, from 60% to 73.9% for breast cancer, and from 39.5% to 68.0% for prostate cancer. The authors of the report concluded their study by calling for the development of a 'pan-European cancer plan' to promote modern diagnostic and treatment facilities.