Survival rates for myeloma patients in England have improved dramatically this decade because of new treatments, a charity has revealed.
Overall five-year survival from haematological cancers has increased by 6.2 percentage points since 2010, according to the analysis by Bloodwise.
The survival improvements were greatest in myeloma, where the increase was 9.2 percentage points, achieving a five year survival rate of 51.7% by 2016.
The charity points to the introduction of nearly 20 new drugs during the period from 2010 to 2016.
It analysed data from the Office for National Statistics and Public Health England.
Other kinds of cancer care have delivered improvements this decade but not to the same extent, the research found. For breast cancer the improvement was 1.7 percentage points and for lung cancer it was 4.9 percentage points.
This was outstripped by the improvement in leukaemia, which increased from 45.8% to 52.8%. Survival from non-Hodgkin lymphoma increased from 61.2% to 65.9%.
The charity’s director of researcher Dr Alasdair Rankine said: “The increase in survival rates for people with blood cancer is hugely encouraging. The progress made into researching more effective treatments for this kind of cancer has been truly remarkable and is one of the great cancer success stories of recent years.
“However, we must not be complacent. Blood cancer still kills over 12,000 people in England every year and for some types of blood cancer, survival is as low as two out of ten people.
"With surgery and radiotherapy rarely an option for treating this kind of cancer, it’s crucial that we keep investing in research to find new and better treatment to beat this terrible disease and so even more lives can be saved.”
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