The four most common cancers breast, lung, colorectal and prostate accounted for just over half of the 233,600 new cases of malignant cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) registered in England in 2004. Around 117,800 of the total were in males and 115,800 in females. Breast cancer accounted for 32 per cent of cases among women and prostate cancer for 25 per cent among men.
Cancer is predominantly a disease of the elderly only 0.5 per cent of cases registered in 2004 were in children (aged under 15) and 26 per cent were in people aged under 60.
Between 1971 and 2004, the age-standardised incidence of cancer increased by around 21 per cent in males and 41 per cent in females.
One in four people die from cancer.
The four most common cancers accounted for just under half of the 125,600 deaths from cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) in England in 2004. Around 65,650 of the total were in males and 59,950 in females. Cancer accounted for 27 per cent of all deaths in males and 22 per cent in females.
Between 1950 and 2004, age-standardised cancer mortality in England and Wales changed very little. However, mortality from the other main causes - heart disease, stroke and infectious diseases - declined. Consequently, cancer became the most common cause of death in females from 1969 and in males from 1995.
Survival varies by type of cancer and, for each, by a number of factors including sex, age and socio-economic status.
Five-year relative survival is very low for cancers of the pancreas, lung, oesophagus and stomach, in the range 2-15 per cent for patients diagnosed in England in 1998 2001, compared with colon cancer (nearly 50 per cent), cancers of the bladder, cervix and prostate (53-71 per cent) and breast cancer (80 per cent).
For the majority of cancers, a higher proportion of women than men survived for at least five years after diagnosis. Among adults, the younger the age at diagnosis, the higher the survival for almost every cancer. Survival improved for most cancers in both sexes during the 1990s.
