Cancer death rates fall by almost 10 per cent in 10 years

This now means that in 2013, 284 out of every 100,000 people in the UK died from cancer - around 162,000 people.  A decade ago this was 312 in every 100, 000.

The rate of cancer deaths has fallen, and this is largely due to improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatments. Without these research-led advances, the rate of cancer deaths would undoubtedly have risen.

Further encouraging news is seen in the narrowing gap between men and women’s cancer death rates.

Men’s death rates have fallen by 12 per cent from 397 for every 100,000 in 2003, to 349 per 100,000 in 2013. This compares to an eight per cent drop in women – falling from 259 per 100,000 women in 2003, to 240 in 2013. This equates to around 85,000 men and 77,000 women dying from cancer each year in the UK.

Four cancers – lung, bowel, breast and prostate – cause almost half (46 per cent) of all cancer deaths in the UK. The combined death rate for these four cancers mirrors the overall fall, dropping by around 11 per cent over the last 10 years, from 146 people per 100,000 in 2003 to 131 people per 100,000 in 2013.