A damning study has revealed later diagnosis, treatment delays and an age bias in a health service that is the sick man of Europe.
Older patients are being particularly let down, according to the report by leading think-tank The King’s Fund.
The fund, which examines ways to improve the NHS, looked at a number of international studies on cancer survival rates. Overall, England has worse survival rates for cancer than other countries including Canada, Australia, Sweden and Norway, and the gap is wider for older people.
More than 250,000 people in England are diagnosed with cancer every year and around 130,000 die.
If England’s cancer survival rates matched the European average, then 5,000 lives would be saved every year and if they matched the European best, then 10,000 lives would be saved, said The King’s Fund. According to Macmillan Cancer Support, 15,000 people over the age of 75 die prematurely each year from the disease.
Catherine Foot, senior fellow at The King’s Fund, said: “The evidence points to early diagnosis as being key to improving outcomes.
“We hope urgent priority is given to closing the gap in survival rates between different groups in society.”
In January, the Government pledged itself to cancer outcomes “comparable with the best in the world”.
Liberal Democrat Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: “This is further evidence of why we need to modernise the NHS. It is unacceptable that our cancer survival rates lag behind our European neighbours and that 15,000 people in the UK over 75 are dying prematurely from cancer each year when compared to the best-performing countries worldwide.”