Half of UK cancer patients now survive for more than ten years

A new report from Cancer Research UK has shed light on the increasingly positive prognoses that cancer patients in Britain are now seeing.

Figures released by the organisation reveal that 50 percent of people diagnosed with cancer today are expected survive their disease for at least a decade, compared to only one-quarter of patients in the 1970s.

Women with breast cancer now have a 78 percent chance of surviving at least ten years, while men with testicular cancer now have a 98 percent chance of doing so. Ten-year survival rates from malignant melanoma, meanwhile, have leapt to 89 percent.

However, only one percent of pancreatic cancer patients and five percent of lung cancer can expect the same. Cancer Research UK is now seeking to ensure 75 percent of all cancer patients can survive more than a decade in 20 years' time.

Dr Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive, said: "We believe no one should be diagnosed too late for their life to be saved and effective treatments should be available to every patient, no matter what type of cancer they have."

The organisation is one of the key drivers of cancer research in this country. Last year, more than 35,000 cancer patients joined one of its clinical trials.