Cancer

In the UK, someone, somewhere, is diagnosed with cancer every couple of minutes.

The incidence of cancer is increasing but fortunately our treatment and survival rates are improving – currently two in four people survive beyond 10 years of diagnosis and treatment. Screening services enable the early detection of cancer, so that an early diagnosis can be made and the treatments are more likely to be successful (Brown et al., 2014).

The cancer health services put a substantial burden on the NHS because it is one of the largest components of NHS spending. It is estimated that cancer costs the NHS £6.7 billion a year with projections indicating that this will increase by 9% a year (Public Health England, 2016). Fortunately, around 4 in 10 cancers are preventable (Brown et al., 2018). One third of cancers alone are caused by smoking, poor diet, harmful levels of alcohol consumption and obesity (Department of Health, 2015).

Who is at risk, and why?

Cancer risks include:

• age (risk increases with age – one third of cancer cases are in persons aged over 75 years)
• sex (men more at risk)
• lifestyle (see chart below)
• inherited factors - genetics and family history
• environmental and occupational exposures (e.g. asbestos)
• infectious diseases (e.g. Human Papilloma Virus)
• ethnicity (cancer type dependent)
• deprivation (lifestyle risk factors, such as smoking, associated with socio-economic deprivation).

Key statistics associated with cancer for Derby include:

Risk factors

• 18.9% of the adult population currently smoke (2017)
• 65.1% of the adult population are overweight or obese (2016/17)
• 57.7% of the adult population meet the recommended ‘5-a-day’ healthy eating guideline (2016/17)
• 24.9% of the adult population are physically inactive (2017/18)

(Public Health England, 2017)

Cancer incidence

• 61 new lung cancer cases were diagnosed per 100,000 population during 2012-14
• 14 new colorectal cancer cases were diagnosed per 100,000 population during 2012-14
• 25 new breast cancer cases were diagnosed per 100,000 population during 2012-14
• 14 new oral cancer cases were diagnosed per 100,000 population during 2011-13
• 21 new malignant melanoma cases were diagnosed per 100,000 population during 2010-12

Screening and vaccination uptake

• 76.6% of females aged 53-70 years were screened for breast cancer in the previous 3 years in Derby (2017)
• 73.3% of females aged 25-64 years were screened for cervical cancer adequately within the previous 3.5 years or 5.5 years, according to age, in Derby (2017)
• 57.6% of people aged between 60-74 were screened for bowel cancer in the last 2.5 years, in Derby (2017). Further information about bowel cancer screening
• 78.8% of 12 and 13 year old girls in Derby have the HPV vaccine to protect against cervical cancer (2016/17)

(Public Health England, 2017)

Cancer mortality

• 27.2% of deaths in Derby in 2016 were caused by cancer
• The under 75 years of age mortality rate from cancer in 2014-16 was 142.2 per 100,000 population in Derby
• The under 75 years of age mortality rate from cancers considered preventable in Derby, was 85.9 per 100,000 population in 2014-16.