UK behind Europe in cancer diagnosis, treatment, survival

The UK is lagging behind Europe in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, finds a new report compiled by Swedish Institute for Health Economics for the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry. The report, launched alongside a new toolkit to help compare the data, shows that cancer patients in England have worse survival rates after five years compared to the European average in nine out of ten cancers - only overshooting the EU average in melanoma.For example, the UK has worst survival rates for ovarian cancer, with only 34 percent alive five years after diagnosis compared to the European average of 41 percent, while it has the second worst survival rates for lung and pancreatic cancers.