Cancer survival times increasing in UK: charity - (The Telegraph via NewsPoints Desk)

• The Macmillan Cancer Support charity said that the mean survival time has increased from one year to 5.8 years since 1971 in the UK, although the figures vary for different cancers, The Telegraph reported Tuesday.
• For 11 out of 20 cancers studied, median survival time was predicted to be more than five years, but for nine others, the survival time was three years or less, with little improvement since the 1970s.
• Ciaran Devane, the charity's chief executive, said: "The good news is tempered by the shocking variation between cancer types. Though we can celebrate increasing median survival times for some cancers such as breast and colon cancers, there has been lamentably poor progress made for lung and pancreatic cancer."
• "It is clear that much, much more money needs to be put into research, surgery and treatment for the cancers with the poorest prognosis," she added.
• Minister of State for Care Services, Paul Burstow, noted that "improving cancer outcomes is a top priority for the Coalition Government and it is investing £750 million over the next four years to help the NHS to improve cancer survival rates.
• “Our ambition is to save at least an additional 5,000 lives per year by 2014-15. We welcome the improvements in survival for most cancers and we are focusing on those which have not improved.

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