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ONCOLOGY
Lung cancer report shows rise in survival
Lung cancer remains the biggest cause of death from both cancer and lung disease for men and women. The latest figures show that survival is improving, but there is still work to be done to ensure that all lung cancer patients receive a high standard of care across the country.
Over 46,000 people are diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK each year according to cancer registration statistics. This makes it the third most common form of cancer in the UK, after breast and prostate cancer, although it kills more people. The disease kills over 35,500 people a year and is the biggest cause of death from both cancer and lung disease for men and women. However, there have been some promising developments, which suggest that the outlook for lung cancer patients may be improving. The National Lung Cancer Audit report
2016, from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), shows a 7% increase in the number of people diagnosed with lung cancer who survive for more than one year, compared to results from 2010. The report also reveals that 60% of lung cancer patients received anti-cancer treatment such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, meeting the target set out in the 2015 annual audit report. Commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP), the report highlights a significant rise in the proportion of patients with advanced non- small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who received chemotherapy, increasing by 16% from 48% in 2008 to 64% in 2015, while the percentage of NSCLC patients undergoing surgery has risen to 16.8%.
In order to ensure that all appropriate treatment options can be considered, a diagnosis must be confirmed by a laboratory pathologist (a process known as pathological confirmation). It is also recommended that further sub-classification is carried out to collect more specific information about the exact type and stage of cancer, and the number of cells affected.
The number of cases with a pathological confirmation has seen an uplift to 72% from 69% in the previous year’s report, with the number of cases where the subtype could not be determined falling to 11%, meeting the target of 15% and continuing the historical trend seen over the past few years. The clear increase in one-year survival, rising from 31% to 38% in the five-year period from 2010 to 2015, reinforces the findings of the clinical outcomes and mesothelioma reports, also published by the National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) at the end of 2016.
There continues to be regional variation in the survival rates and types of treatment that patients are offered.
MARCH 2017
Due to a change in the way data are collected in England, using the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Service (NCRAS), over 6,000 further cases of lung cancer were able to be identified and included within the audit. As a result, this has provided the most comprehensive picture of lung cancer care in the UK to date.
Despite the obvious good news, as previous reports from the NLCA have shown, there continues to be regional variation in the survival rates and types of treatment that patients are offered. Work must therefore be done to ensure that all patients are consistently provided with the best possible care.
Key recommendations
The recommendations in the report set out a vision for healthcare professionals,
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