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Breast cancer screening has helped save thousands of lives

By Duncan Kennedy

BBC News

The rate of improvement in the number of people who survive cancer has slowed significantly, a study says.

A report by Cancer Research UK says the rate of progress was five times faster in the 2000s than in the 2010s.

It says lack of sufficient funding for research is largely to blame.

However, the report also finds the likelihood of surviving a decade or more with cancer in the UK is the highest it has ever been, rising from 47.9% in 2010-11 to 49.8% in 2018.

This compares to about a quarter (24%) in the early 1970s.

It is the first time in a decade that the charity has published figures on overall cancer survival rates in the UK.

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Screening programmes for breast, bowel and cervical cancer are credited with saving more than 5,000 lives a year.