Cancer
Cancer
Cancer
Cancer
Cancer is a leading public health challenge. Along with cardiovascular diseases it is the main cause of death in Bury and a main cause of the gap in life expectancy between Bury’s most and least deprived areas.
In all forms, it is a condition that is likely to affect one in two of us during our lifetime. The 4 most common types of cancer are breast, lung, prostate and bowel. Making some simple changes to our lifestyle can significantly reduce the risk of developing cancer. (Cancer - NHS (www.nhs.uk)
Figure 1: Incidences of the most common cancers, standardised incidence ratio. Indirectly standardised ratio per 100, for the period 2015-19.
Diagnoses
The percentage of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 in 2020 for Bury was 53.6%. This was similar to England at 52.3%. There has been no significant change in the trend. Public health profiles - OHID (phe.org.uk)
New cancer cases for 2020/21 per 100,000 population were 470 for Bury ICB compared to 456 for England. The trend in Bury has shown no significant change.
Two-week wait referrals (indirectly age-sex standardised referral ratio) for 5 years combined data (2017/18 – 2021/22) was 107.6 for Bury ICB compared to 100 for England.
Two-week referrals resulting in a diagnosis of cancer, as a % of all two week referrals for 5 years combined data (2017/18 – 2021/22) was 6.1% for Bury ICB compared to 6.8% for England.
New cancer cases treated resulting from a two-week wait referral for 5 years combined data (2017/18 – 2021/22) was 54.7% for Bury ICB compared to 53.5% for England.
Screening
Cancer screening programmes can help to diagnose cancer or risk of cancer earlier and improve the likelihood of successful treatment. There are three national cancer screening programmes in England. NHS England » Screening and earlier diagnosis
Cervical screening
The NHS cervical screening programme in England is offered to people with a cervix aged from 25 to 64. Routine screening is offered every three years up to 49 years of age and every five years from 50 to 64 years of age. Depending on the result of the screen, people may be recalled earlier than these routine intervals.
Cervical screening coverage: aged 25 to 49 years old. Persons aged 25-49 are invited for routine screening every 3 years. Bury ICB is significantly above the England average.
Figure 2: Cervical screening coverage aged 25 to 49 years old, Bury ICB and England, 2009/10 – 2021/22
Cervical screening coverage: aged 50 to 64 years old. Persons aged 50-64 are invited for routine screening every 5 years. Since 2014/15 Bury ICB has either been significantly above or similar to England but in 2021/22 they have dropped significantly below England.
Figure 3: Cervical screening coverage aged 50 to 64 years old, Bury ICB and England, 2009/10 – 2021/22
Breast screening
About 1 in 8 women in the UK are diagnosed with breast cancer during their lifetime. If it’s detected early, treatment is more successful and there’s a good chance of recovery.
Coverage for those aged 50 to 70 years old in Bury ICB. Persons are invited for screening for the first time between their 50th and 53rd birthdays and every three years thereafter up to but not including their 71st birthdays. Over this 21 year window a person who responds to each invitation should be screened 7 times. This indicator measures the fraction of this pool of eligible people who have been screened adequately, at least once, in the three years up to 31 March of the data year. Bury ICB is significantly above the England average.
Figure 4: Breast screening coverage aged 50 to 70 years old
Bowel cancer screening
Bowel cancer survival is improving and has more than doubled in the last 40 years in the UK. If diagnosed early, more than 90% of bowel cancer cases can be treated successfully.
Screening programmes test to see if people show any early signs of cancer. By detecting bowel cancer at an early stage, treatment has a better chance of working.
As part of the NHS Bowel Cancer Screening Programme, men and women aged 60-74 are sent a home testing kit every two years.
Bowel cancer screening coverage: aged 60 to 74 years old. This is the percentage of eligible people who have been screened adequately in the previous 2.5 years. Overall the percentage for Bury ICP has increased from 52.5% in 2013/14 to 69.1% in 2021/22, however it was significantly below the England average between 2013/14 and 2015/16, not significantly different to them in 2016/17 and 2017/18, was significantly above in 2018/19 and 2019/20 and is significantly below again in 2020/21 and 2021/22.
Figure 5: Bowel cancer screening coverage (%) aged 60 to 74 years old
Mortality Rates
Overall, Bury has higher rates of death from cancer than England. The standardised mortality ratio in Bury 2016-2020 was 106.8 compared to 100 for England. This suggests that mortality rates from cancer are almost 7% higher than in England, adjusting for different age structures.
Figure 6 below shows directly standardised mortality rates per 100,000 for all ages and all cancers for females, males, and both genders combined for 2021. Overall, Bury has higher death rates from cancer than England or statistically similar areas. However, when viewed by gender, Bury has similar mortality rates from cancer among men to the average of statistically similar areas. The difference between Bury and its statistical neighbours is entirely attributable to higher death rates from cancer in women.
Figure 7 shows the same data for people aged 65 and over. Cancer is a strongly age-related disease so the mortality rates in people aged 65 and over are higher than among the population as a whole. However, the same pattern of an overall difference between Bury and statistically similar places and England is clear when both genders are combined, and this is largely accounted for by more deaths from cancer among women in Bury.
A similar pattern can also be seen in deaths from cancers among people aged under 75 (figure 8). Rates of death from cancer are lower among younger people. The death rates among women aged under 75 are again noticeably higher in Bury than among statistically similar areas or England. However, in men under 75 there is also evidence that death rates are higher than in statistically similar areas or in England.
Figure 6: All age mortality from cancers, directly standardised rates per 100,000, Bury, statistical neighbours, and England, 2021.
Figure 7: Mortality from cancers in people aged 65 and over, directly standardised rates per 100,000, Bury, statistical neighbours, and England, 2021.
Figure 8: Mortality from cancers in people aged under 75, directly standardised rates per 100,000, Bury, statistical neighbours, and England, 2021.
The three most common causes of cancer death in Bury are lung, colorectal, and breast cancers (Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, 2021). Looking at mortality caused by these three cancers by sex, lung cancers account for the largest number of cancer deaths, and most of the difference in cancer deaths between Bury, its statistical neighbours, and England (Figure 9).
Figure 9: Mortality from cancers in people aged under 75, directly standardised rates per 100,000, Bury, statistical neighbours, and England, 2021.
Support
There are a variety of groups and organisations in place for information and support with cancer. They include: