Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make a comparative estimate of breast cancer survival rates in (a) the UK and (b) other comparable nations in the latest period for which data is available.

There are no such plans to make a comparative assessment. Cancer survival is measured in cohorts, so the 2010 comparison point uses the 2006-10 cohort, compared to the latest available data which reflects the 2016-20 cohort.  In England, breast cancer net survival rate for the 2016-20 cohort one year after diagnosis was 96.1% compared to 94.4% for the 2006-10 cohort. The five-year survival rate was 85.9% for the 2016-20 cohort compared to 83.2% for the 2006-10 cohort.

The Department has undertaken analyses previously, especially of comparative cancer survival rates and contributors to variations between different countries. However, the different factors and methods used in such analyses are very complex and subject to interpretation of issues such as public health, risk factors, and patient pathways.

An example of this can be seen in the Department’s evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee Inquiry into cancer services, submitted and published in September 2021. More information is available at the following link:

https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/39021/pdf/