Letter to the Committee from Cancer Research
UK
I am writing further to the Committee of Public
Accounts evidence session on the NAO Report "Tackling
Cancer in England: saving more lives", which took place
at the end of the summer session.
Cancer Research UK welcomes the NAO's Report,
and the work the Government has done so far to prioritise cancer.
However much energy and financial expenditure is needed to make
a real and lasting impact on both cancer prevention and cancer
treatment. This is especially relevant with the anticipated future
increase in cancer incidence resulting from an ageing population
as well as lifestyle factors, including smoking, obesity, diet
and reproductive patterns. Inequalities in access to treatment
between rich and poor need to be addressed, in tandem with efforts
to help reduce cancer incidence in deprived groups. Tackling cancer
in the UK is a formidable task for the Government, requiring inter-departmental
collaboration and considerable determination and resources.
Cancer Research UK applauds the work of the
Committee of Public Accounts in scrutinising the state of cancer
services in the UK, specifically in examining socioeconomic inequalities
in cancer survival.
We followed with interest the Committee's discussion
on public awareness campaigns, and mortality and survival statistics.
Cancer Research UK jointly funded Professor Michel Coleman's study
"Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in cancer survival
in England and Wales up to 2001", which provided the figures
on survival and mortality that appear in the above NAO Report.
We would like to offer the Committee further information on the
following areas raised at the evidence session:
— Cancer Research UK's SunSmart skin
cancer prevention campaign.
— Cancer mortality and survival statistics.
— Clarification on statistics used
in the NAO Report.
CANCER RESEARCH
UK SUNSMART CAMPAIGN
During the evidence session the Chairman asked
about the existence of a comprehensive national programme on skin
cancer. In November 2002 Cancer Research UK was commissioned by
the UK Government to run a national skin cancer prevention initiative,
called SunSmart, which was launched in March 2003. After an initial
pilot year Cancer Research UK was funded to run the SunSmart campaign
until 2007, with funding over three years totalling £525,000.
The aim of the campaign is to increase awareness of the preventable
nature of skin cancer and effective methods of sun protection,
with the eventual long-term aim of reducing the incidence of,
and mortality from, skin cancer in the UK. Campaign strategies
include public communication, support to professionals, and research
and policy development.
The campaign raises awareness of the actions
people can take to protect their skin from the sun through the
SunSmart Code, and highlights the importance of seeking early
advice from health professionals in the event of skin changes
and the appearance of lesions. The campaign also works to increase
shade provision and ensure safe school environments. These messages
can be seen in a wide variety of locations in our range of posters,
leaflets, website, press and PR activities, and through corporate
partnerships. Materials have been sent in various forms to every
nursery, primary and secondary school, health promotion unit,
dermatologist, primary care and Sure-Start coordinator in the
UK. The SunSmart campaign has distributed over 40,000 posters
to UK GP Surgeries to assist health professionals in the identification
of suspicious skin lesions, as well as distributing 175,000 general
posters and over two million postcard sized message cards.
Market research conducted pre and post campaign,
in February and September 2003, showed significant increases in
overall knowledge of skin cancer prevention measures, and considerable
increases in un-prompted knowledge around specific sun awareness
behaviours.
CANCER MORTALITY
AND SURVIVAL
STATISTICS
In the evidence session on this Report, the
Committee questioned the links between mortality and survival
figures and deprivation. The NAO Report makes clear that there
are no obvious links between the changes in cancer mortality
rates and levels of affluence. However the figures on cancer survival
rates in the report, taken from Professor Michel Coleman's study,
"Trends and socioeconomic inequalities in cancer survival
in England and Wales up to 2001" show that there is a link
between improvement in cancer survival rates and affluence.
CLARIFICATION ON
STATISTICS USED
IN NAO REPORT
Members of the Committee questioned the figures
taken from Professor Coleman's paper and used in the NAO Report.
Specifically members asked why the NAO Report used figures attributed
to Professor Coleman's paper stating that the survival gap had
widened for 12 of the 16 cancers examined in men, and nine of
the 17 cancers examined in women, when the Professor Coleman's
paper appeared to state that "five year survival was significantly
lower than for those [in the most affluent areas] for 44 out of
47 cancers".
The explanation for this anomaly is that the
research conducted by Professor Coleman used for the NAO Report
did not find that "five year survival was significantly lower
than for those in the most affluent areas for 44 out of 47 cancers".
This statistic is quoted at the beginning of Professor Coleman's
paper, but is taken from a previous piece of research conducted
in 1999—`Cancer survival trends in England and Wales 1971-95:
Deprivation and NHS Region'. This research examined a greater
number of cancers, and used figures from the period 1981-90, hence
the difference in statistics.
I hope this information is useful.
Yours sincerely
Catherine Muge
Public Affairs
Cancer Research UK
16 September 2004
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