More than a million lives saved from cancer in the last four decades

New data from Cancer Research UK reveals that around 1.2 million cancer deaths have been avoided in the UK since the mid-1980s – thanks to progress in cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment*.

Since the 1980s, cancer mortality rates have fallen by around a quarter, after peaking in men in 1985 and for women in 1989**. The reduction in deaths from cancer can be attributed to a variety of factors, including improvements in radiotherapy, better screening programmes, advancements in drug development and prevention and gene discoveries.

More than half a million lives have been saved from lung cancer (560,000), with stomach (236,000), bowel (224,000), and breast cancer (170,000) also seeing large improvements in mortality rates.

To coincide with the release of the new data, Cancer Research UK’s new campaign Together We Are Beating Cancer links the charity’s scientific breakthroughs with what this means for people with cancer and their families every day – the invaluable life moments that they’ve been able to enjoy thanks to research.

Aston spoke to Dr Claire Bromley, senior research information manager at Cancer Research UK.