Study: Cancer death toll lowest for 40 years

The number of deaths from three of the most common cancers in the UK has dropped to its lowest level for nearly 40 years.

The Cancer Research UK figures, out today, found the mortality rate for breast, bowel and male lung cancer are at their lowest since 1971.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “Years of research are behind the dramatic progress being made in the fight against Britain’s common cancers.

“Survival rates have doubled in the last thirty years and the work of Cancer Research UK has been at the heart of that progress.

Breast cancer deaths peaked in 1989, when 15,625 women died from the disease. The latest figures (from 2007) showed this dropped to 11,990. For bowel cancer the mortality rate peaked in 1992 at 19,598 deaths, but was down 31 per cent in 2007.

The number of men dying from lung cancer was down 53 per cent from 1979 to 2007.