More People Surviving Cancer In NI

Despite the rising incidence of cancer in Northern Ireland, the number of people surviving the disease here is increasing significantly year on year.

Each year there are between 50-60 men and women who survive the deadly effects of cancer who previously would have died.

The survival rates in Northern Ireland for cancers including breast and colorectal are among the best in the UK, and its patients are benefiting from improved treatment outcomes by up to four per cent better than those for England and Wales.

The figures have been revealed today as Queen’s University Belfast is presented with a Diamond Jubilee Queen’s Anniversary Prize at Buckingham Palace, in recognition of its leadership of the Northern Ireland Comprehensive Cancer Services (CCS) programme.

Accepting the prize today, Professor Patrick Johnston, Dean of the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences, said: "Despite the rising incidence rates of cancer, between 1993 and 2009, the number of men dying from cancer has gone down by 1.3 per cent and the number of women by 0.9 per cent. Some of our survivors are currently alive and well a significant number of years after the kind of cancer that not so long ago would have taken them from us.

"Cancer no longer needs to be seen as an inevitable death sentence. In many instances it can now be viewed instead as a chronic disease."

(LB)