Report finds rise in longevity and survival rates of blood cancer patients

Professor Deirdre Murray, director of NCRI, and professor of epidemiology at University College Cork (UCC) said: 'Genetic testing has been increasingly applied to improve diagnosis and better target treatments for patients with blood cancers.' Picture: Denis Minihane

Many more blood cancer patients are living five years after diagnosis as treatment improves, with the rate now at 67% of patients up from 53% in the 1990s.

Fewer people are dying from these conditions also with a decline by over 1% annually since the 1990s, according to a new National Cancer Registry of Ireland (NCRI) report.