The report says that part of the recorded increase may simply be due to better detection of cases. But the upwards trend is in sharp contrast to other killers such as heart disease, stroke and infectious diseases, which are now killing less people. More people now die from cancer than from other major causes of death. One in three One in three people will develop cancer during their life and one in four people will die from the disease. It is estimated that about 600,000 women and 365,000 men in England and Wales have been diagnosed with cancer, and are currently living with the disease.
People living in more deprived areas are at greater risk of dying from smoking-related cancers.
The report found that cancer occurs mainly in old people and the numbers of cases rise more quickly with age in women than in men owing largely to cancers of the breast and cervix. The risk of women developing breast cancer and men developing prostate cancer is greater in more affluent areas. Survival from some cancers, such as melanoma of the skin and testicular cancer, has improved dramatically since the early 1970s. However, survival from some of the highly fatal cancers such as those of the lung and pancreas has shown little change. The study showed that women have higher survival than men for many cancers and for most cancers, survival is lower in patients who are older when they are diagnosed.