Survival rates have continued to improve for most of the common cancers, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
The ONS tracked one-year and five-year net survival rates for adults diagnosed with one of the 21 most common cancers in England during 2007-2011. Research was then followed up to 31 December 2012.
It found survival rates improved for most of the 21 common cancers, with an 80% chance of five-year survival for cancers of the breast (women), prostate and testis and for Hodgkin lymphoma and melanoma of the skin.
However, five-year survival rates for cancers of the brain, lung, oesophagus, pancreas and stomach in both sexes were around a fifth (21%) or less.
Meanwhile, five year survival from pancreatic cancer was the lowest for both sexes, with a survival rate of just 5%.
For cancers occurring in both sexes, survival has been generally higher in women, with two exceptions: bladder cancer (49.1% in women, 58.6% in men) and myeloma (41.6% in women, 42.8% in men).
The research also found a continued trend of lower survival among older patients and often higher survival among younger patients. The ONS also factored in the higher background mortality in the elderly and cases where younger patients died from other causes.
Breast cancer and prostate cancers were cited as notable exceptions, which has been attributed to more widespread screening activity.
The study also highlighted international research which identified while cancer survival had improved steadily in England, it has been generally lower than in other comparably wealthy countries.
While one-year and five-year survival from breast, colorectal, lung and ovarian cancers improved between 1995 and 2007 in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom as a whole, in England survival rates were generally lower.
