Breast cancer patients live four years longer than in 1970

Breast cancer patients live four years longer than in 1970 People in the UK now live six times longer after their cancer diagnosis than those treated 40 years ago, according to a leading cancer charity. However, the new study of survival figures found progress has been extremely uneven.
While patients with 11 types of cancer can hope to live more than five years after diagnosis, nine other cancers have a predicted survival time of less than three years.
The research from Macmillan Cancer charted changes in the median survival time for 20 different cancers over 40 years. This measurement revealed the number of years since diagnosis when half of patients were still alive. 
The data revealed survival for all cancer types in 1970 was just one year, while now it is predicted to be nearly six years.
Breast cancer median survival time has doubled over the same period and has been more than 10 years since the early 1990s
The biggest improvement has been for colon cancer with a 17-fold increase in median survival time from around seven months to ten years.
However, lung and brain cancer median survival times has barely risen, from 11 to 20 weeks; and from 13 to 28 weeks respectively.
Pancreatic cancer made the least improvement with  median survival time increasing by just three weeks (from nine to 12 weeks).
Ciarán Devane, Chief Executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: ‘This research is a huge breakthrough in seeing the real picture of how long people are living after a cancer diagnosis.
‘But the good news is tempered by the shocking variation between cancer types.
'Though we can celebrate increasing median survival times for some cancers such as breast and colon cancers, there has been lamentably poor progress made for lung and pancreatic cancer.
'It is clear that much, much more money needs to be put into research, surgery and treatment for the cancers with the poorest prognosis.'
In 2010, breast cancer accounted for 20 per cent of site-specific funding, which was more than the combined amount spent on many cancers with the lowest survival times - stomach, oesophagus, pancreas, brain and lung cancer.
Mr Devane said improvements in survival rates were testaments to advances in earlier diagnosis, surgery, radiotherapy and new drugs.
But he added: 'While it is wonderful news that more cancer patients are living longer overall, we also know they are not necessarily living well.
'Cancer treatment is the toughest fight many will ever face and patients are often left with long-term health and emotional problems long after their treatment has ended.'
He said two thirds of colorectal patients still alive five years after diagnosis have ongoing health problems.
Dr Diana Greenfield, a Macmillan Consultant Nurse at Weston Park Hospital, Sheffield, said: ‘In our late effects clinic we do see patients who develop chronic health problems as a direct result of the treatment they received for cancer.
'Most problems are manageable if found early enough. That’s why assessing and screening patients in a timely and systematic way is becoming more important.'