There's a cancer treatment revolution — but Britain is being left behind

For more than four decades, the developed world has been quietly beating cancer. The death rate, when adjusted for age, is falling rapidly, mainly owing to new treatments and big public efforts to stop people smoking. More awareness of bugs that can cause cancer, such as H-pylori in the stomach, have helped, too. In the US, for example, stomach cancer mortality was nine times lower in 2021 than it was in 1950.

- Martha Gill

But Britain may be missing out on the cancer revolution - or at least, it is being left behind. At the last count, we had more cancer deaths per person than any other G7 country. We do particularly badly when it comes to the deadliest sorts: for lung and stomach cancer, we rank 28th out of 33 countries with similar wealth and income levels; for brain cancer we are 25th and for liver cancer we are 21st.

And things are due to get worse. A new paper from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine finds that the increase in cancer survival is slowing for all cancers in England and Wales. Last week, too, we heard that by 2040 more than 6m cancer cases could be diagnosed in England, double the rate of the 1970s.

It may be tempting to think we can solve this problem with hi-tech ideas - investing in screenings, or wonder drugs. The health secretary, Wes Streeting, has talked of a national screening programme. But that may not do much in reality. It would be impractical to screen everyone for every cancer they could get - there are far better uses for NHS funds. In fact, most cancers are detected not through routine checks but when a patient goes to their GP with symptoms that get them an urgent referral.