Cancer patients twice as likely to live an extra decade

People are twice as likely to live at least 10 years after being diagnosed with cancer than they were at the start of the 1970s, research shows.

More than 170,000 people in the UK who were diagnosed in the 1970s and 1980s are still alive — an “extraordinary” number, Macmillan Cancer Support said in its report Cancer: Then And Now.

Here in Ireland, Irish Cancer Society (ICS) head of research Dr Robert O’Connor said survival rates were also constantly improving.

“Figures from the National Cancer Registry (NCR) for 2013 show that if you take all cancers together, 54% of people are alive 10 years after diagnosis and that figure is on the up all of the time. It’s a reflection of major advances in cancer research and of finding better ways to treat cancer,” Dr O’Connor said.

On the downside however, even though people were living longer, their quality of life was often compromised by the long-term side-effects of cancer treatment. Macmillan estimates one in four people are living with significant consequences.

“The side-effects may mean complete disablement, extreme fatigue, depression. They can be physical and/or psychological. And that places a very big burden,” Dr O’Connor said.

“What we need to do is to move the focus from treating the tumour to treating the patient. These patients can have significant needs and the health service needs to adapt to provide the resources to get them back on their feet and thriving,” Dr O’Connor added.

As essential part of this was providing people with the support to participate, particularly in the workforce, he said.

Around 625,000 people in the UK are estimated to be facing poor health or disability after treatment for cancer, including incontinence and serious sexual problems.

Macmillan chief executive Lynda Thomas said the challenge for medical professionals is to “keep up to speed” with the potential side-effects as new treatments emerge.

Some 116,000 cancer patients last year in England did not have the potential long-term side effects from their cancer fully explained to them, she warned.

“It does happen from time to time we will meet patients who’ve said ‘I had no idea this was going to happen’, I hope that’s happening less and less now, particularly as professionals become better at explaining the consequences of treatment.

“But it’s important people recognise that issues such as fertility might be affected, or you might have heart problems later on in life.

“You never want to somebody to say ‘I wish I’d known that before because I would have done something different’.”

Dr O’Connor said people could be proactive about preventing cancer by making sensible lifestyle choices and seeking treatment early where concerns arose. 40% of cancers are preventable.