UK breast cancer death rates are falling faster than ever and faster than almost anywhere in Europe, according to latest research which identifies increasing improvements in screening and other treatments as the cause of the improving situation for women’s health.
The research also shows that death rates from breast cancer in the UK have dropped by a third in a generation, the overall rates falling steeply in the UK in the last 20 years – and at a faster rate than in any other European country apart from Iceland, the pan-European study released in the British Medical Journal reveals.
From 1989 to 2006 the breast cancer death rate decreased by at least 20 per cent in 15 European countries.
The figures show that breast cancer death rates fell by about 30 per cent in the UK.
Rates also fell by between ten and 16 per cent in France, Sweden and Finland where significant resources have been invested in breast cancer screening and new cancer drug treatments.
The research suggest that the improvement in the UK may also be due to high rates of breast screening, the use of effective drugs such as tamoxifen, and the reorganisation of breast cancer services.
Cancer Research UK Policy Manager, Hilary Tovey, says: “This research highlights the great progress we have made in reducing deaths from breast cancer over the past 20 years.
“The UK has seen greater decreases in the number of women dying from breast cancer than many other European countries over this period; though this is partly because death rates were relatively high in the 1980s.
“Reorganising breast cancer services, screening, improved awareness and better treatments, made possible as a result of excellent research, have all had a role to play.
“In order to make accurate comparisons between cancer survival in different European countries, we must measure like with like. For more meaningful comparisons, improved cancer registration is needed.”
The research challenges previous claims about UK cancer services, which were based on poor survival rates in comparison to other western European countries.
Death rates have not been declining so well in central European countries and some have even seen increases in the past two decades.
The research was developed by a team of scientists at the International Prevention Research Institute in France who studied data on breast cancer mortality rates in women living in 30 European countries between 1980 and 2006. World Health Organisation data was also used to calculate cancer death rates for all women by age group.
Results from 1989 to 2006 showed there was a median reduction in breast cancer mortality of 19 per cent, ranging from a 45 per cent reduction in Iceland to a 17 per cent increase in Romania.
England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland had the second, third, and fourth largest decreases of 35 per cent, 29 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
In France, Finland, and Sweden, mortality decreased by 11 per cent, 12 per cent, and 16 per cent, respectively.
Changes in breast cancer mortality after 1988 varied widely between European countries but the UK is among the countries with the largest reductions, suggesting health strategies are working.
Women aged under 50 years showed the greatest reductions in mortality, also in countries where screening at that age is uncommon.
Although it must be understood that breast cancer is by no means defeated – it still kills around 12,000 women each year in the Uk – the news is clearly very encouraging and shows that cancer treatments are having an impact.
Since 1990 major changes have taken place in clinical treatments of breast cancer due to mammography screening, implementation of effective hormone treatments and chemotherapy, and progress in radiotherapy and surgery, all of it aided by the excellent research work of leading UK cancer charities.
