New figures show big improvements in cancer diagnosis in England are under way, it was announced last night.
Growing numbers of patients are getting a diagnosis through urgent referral from a GP – while the proportion diagnosed as emergencies has fallen, according to the new figures.
The analysis from Public Health England covers the years from 2006 to 2013 and comes from tracking the care of more than two million patients.
The study shows changes in diagnosis rates for 56 kinds of cancer over the eight years.
It shows that in 2013 20% of patients had their disease diagnosed as an emergency – compared with 25% in 2006. This still represented about 60,000 patients.
Screening programmes for colorectal and cervical cancer were contributing a growing proportion of diagnoses, the researchers say.
Some 28% of patients with lung cancer were diagnosed through GP urgent referral in 2013 compared with 22% in 2006. The proportion of emergency diagnoses fell from 39% to 35%.
Julia Verne, from Public Health England, said: “The latest Routes to Diagnosis data shows a positive trend in how cancer is diagnosed in England. The earlier the better if we are to catch up with comparable European countries.
“These improvements in routes to cancer diagnosis follow several years of work across the sector to improve early diagnosis in England and we encourage anyone with an interest, from patients, to charities, to clinicians, to look at the data."
She added: "Our work however, is not complete; while emergency presentation is declining it still remains high for cancers like liver and pancreas.”
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