A response to the latest cancer statistics for England

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published the latest Cancer Registration Statistics on patients diagnosed with cancer in England in 2013.

The report, released today, showed that there were 292,680 cases of cancer registered in 2013. Leukaemia was the most common childhood cancer, accounting for 33% of cancer diagnoses in boys and 34.7% in girls aged 0 to 14. 

Leukaemia and lymphoma were both in the top 10 most diagnosed cancers in adults. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma was the sixth most common cancer overall, with 6,186 men and 5,206 women diagnosed. Leukaemia was the ninth most common cancer, with 4,800 men and 3,165 women diagnosed with leukaemia in 2013.

The report also highlights the fact that age is still the major risk factor for cancers in general, with 49.9% of patients aged 70 or older at diagnosis. Despite blood cancers being the biggest cancer killer in the under 35s, the majority of blood cancer patients are elderly. With people living longer, the incidence of blood cancers, and cancers overall, will inevitably slowly increase.

Gruelling chemotherapy remains the best chance of a long-term cure for many types of blood cancer, but most elderly patients are unable to tolerate this treatment.

Leukaemia Lymphoma Research is working to develop more treatments that target blood cancer, and to make these new treatments less gruelling for patients to take.  This will give all patients, from the very young to the elderly, the chance of both effective treatment and a good quality of life.