Rising cancer rates mean four in 10 people in the UK get the disease at some point in their lives, a health charity says.Macmillan Cancer Support says the figure has risen significantly in the past decade.

The charity says the rise poses a “massive challenge” for the NHS.

Ministers in England say they are working to improve cancer survival rates and the quality of life after diagnosis and treatment.

Macmillan Cancer Support says a decade ago about a third of people, or 33%, developed cancer at some point in their lives. The charity says that figure has risen to more than 40%.

The estimates are drawn from projections published two years ago in the British Journal of Cancer, which concluded that at the end of 2008 there were two million cancer survivors in the UK and that the figure was rising every year.

Macmillan also looked at recent cancer incidence and mortality statistics for the UK, indicating that 310,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008.

About 157,000 people died from the disease, and 89,000 who had been diagnosed with cancer died from other causes, making a total of 246,000 who died “with” cancer.

The charity says this accounted for 42% of total deaths in the UK – which stood at 580,000.

Macmillan says the increase is partly down to an ageing population – older people are more likely to develop cancer. It says lifestyle factors, such as diet and exercise, and improved diagnosis have also contributed to the rise.

The chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, Ciaran Devane, said the calculations had important implications for the health service.

“It is really alarming that the number of people who will get cancer is now well past one in three and that there are so many more people with cancer today than even 10 years ago,” he said.

“There are currently two million people living with cancer in the UK and that number is doubling to four million over the next 20 years. Yet no-one thinks the country can afford to double its spending on cancer. We’ve therefore got to become twice as effective in how we spend that money.”

The charity says there is growing evidence of the long-term health problems many cancer patients are experiencing long after initial diagnosis and treatment. It says there is a need for more services to help people stay well at home, rather than waiting until they require emergency hospital treatment.

The Care Services Minister for England, Paul Burstow, said it was absolutely right for Macmillan to raise this as a major issue.

“We agree with Macmillan. That’s why we are working to deliver more personalised care and more help to keep people well in their own homes. We are investing more than £750m over four years to improve cancer outcomes,” he said.

The chair of the Royal College of GPs, Dr Clare Gerada, said the figures highlighted the increasing impact of cancer on many people’s lives.

“What is clear from this study is that cancer survival is not the whole picture. All healthcare professionals have a duty to see that patients receive the best possible care, and aftercare, following a diagnosis of cancer, and to ensure their patients are not just living, but living well,” she said.

From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14140424

Having wasted a few reports recently on extending the nanny state by battering voters into not eating fat food the killer quango NICE has now decided to prematurely kill cancer patients.
Kidney cancer patients will not be allowed a new drug that could extend their lives by up to three months because it is too expensive, the NHS drug rationing body has said.

The National Institute for Curbing Expenditure has turned down the drug called everolimus, also known as Afinitor, saying it does not offer enough benefit to patients to justify the cost.

Each pack of the drug costs £2,822 and the manufacturer, Novartis, had offered the first pack free to the NHS and a five per cent discount on following ones.

But even with this, and taking into account new guidance on end of life drugs which allows Nice to approve more expensive drugs that extend life for patients with rare diseases, the treatment was still too expensive, the panel decided.

An estimated eight week cycle of treatment would cost £5,264 per patient.

The cost per quality adjusted life year gained, a complex calculation taking into account improvement in quality of life as well as extra length of life versus the cost of the new drug over and above existing treatments, is almost double what Nice would normally allow.

Around 4,000 people a year in England and Wales are diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer and those who would be eligible for treatment because they had already tried the other drug, called Sutent, and were still fit enough to attempt another drug, would be much fewer, Nice said in a statement.

Patient groups hit out at the draft guidance saying people with rare cancers were being penalised.

Last year patients with advanced kidney cancer campaigned after four drugs including Sutent were turned down. Nice partially reversed the decision and Sutent is now available.

Mike Hobday, Head of Policy at Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “We are disappointed by Nice’s decision not to make everolimus available on the NHS for people living with advanced kidney cancer, who already have limited treatment options following the rejection of three clinically effective drugs last year.”

“It’s unfair that patients suffering from rarer cancers are repeatedly denied treatments that could extend their lives. Drugs like everolimus can dramatically improve people’s quality of life. They can mean the difference between patients being given a few weeks to live and a few months – valuable time that can be spent with family and friends, which means a lot to cancer patients.”

Nick Turkentine, Chief Operating Officer for the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer said: “Once again Nice has disappointed the thousands of kidney cancer sufferers in the UK by not approving everolimus, a drug which gives terminal kidney cancer patients and their families some hope.”

From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/Kidney-cancer-patients-denied-drug-that-can-extend-their-lives