Why do cancer survival rates in europe lag behind the U.S.?
Cancer Survival Rates Improving Across Europe, But Still Lagging Behind United States
Zosia Chustecka
Information from Industry
October 15, 2008 — New reports from EUROCARE suggest that cancer care in Europe is improving and that the gaps between countries are narrowing. However, comparisons with US statistics suggest that cancer survival in Europe is still lagging behind the United States.
One of the main messages from both reports is that in Europe, "for most cancers, survival has increased and between-country survival differences have decreased over time," notes an accompanying commentary by Mike Richards, CBE, from the United Kingdom’s Department of Health. However, the differences between countries are not trivial, and "many more lives could be saved if the outcomes of all countries were brought up to the standards of the best" (ie, Norway, Sweden, and Finland), he comments. The United Kingdom in particular comes out badly in the tables, showing cancer survival rates that are among the worst in Europe. The findings suggest that the national cancer plan for England, which began in 2000, is not working, a second editorial comments.
Survival Rates Significantly Higher in United States Than in Europe
One of the reports compares the statistics from Europe with those from the United States and shows that for most solid tumors, survival rates were significantly higher in US patients than in European patients. This analysis, headed by Arduino Verdecchia, PhD, from the National Center for Epidemiology, Health Surveillance, and Promotion, in Rome, Italy, was based on the most recent data available. It involved about 6.7 million patients from 21 countries, who were diagnosed with cancer between 2004 and 2006.
Survival was significantly higher in the United States for all solid tumors. The greatest differences were seen in the major cancer sites: colon and rectum (56.2% in Europe vs 65.5% in the United States), breast (79.0% vs 90.1%), and prostate cancer (77.5% vs 99.3%), and this "probably represents differences in the timeliness of diagnosis," they comment.
Further analysis of these figures shows that, in the case of men, more than half of the difference in survival between Europe and United States can be attributed to prostate cancer. When prostate cancer is excluded, the survival rates decreased to 38.1% in Europe and 46.9% in the United States. For women, the survival rate of 62.9% for all cancers in the United States is comparable to that seen in the wealthiest European countries (eg, 61.7% in Sweden, 59.7% in Europe), and the slightly higher survival in the United States was largely due to better survival for colorectal and breast cancer, the authors comment.
Lancet Oncol. Published online December 21, 2008.
It really is not a fair comparison. Europe is made up by several countries, we are just one. We have a standard of care which is the same regardless of what state you are in. you cannot expect the standard to be the same in each country the makes up Europe.
The story states it may be due to differences in the timeliness of diagnosis, which may be true. It would be easy enough to figure out, just compare the data by stage.
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this "probably represents differences in the timeliness of diagnosis," they comment.
read your article next time you post it.
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perhaps because people see their doctors more often, get diagnosed earlier where successful treatment is more likely.
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RN
Cancer is usually had by older people. Many of Europe’s socialized health care systems do not provide for people over 65. This leads to poor and middle class senior citizens from being able to get treatment.
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you’re going to piss off an awful lot of left wing people with this!
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It really is not a fair comparison. Europe is made up by several countries, we are just one. We have a standard of care which is the same regardless of what state you are in. you cannot expect the standard to be the same in each country the makes up Europe.
The story states it may be due to differences in the timeliness of diagnosis, which may be true. It would be easy enough to figure out, just compare the data by stage.
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I am a cancer registrar.
I think it’s because of junk food. USA is well know as junk food heaven and 90% people of America is are obese from their habit eating junk food.
European people have more high awareness with healthy food and lifestyle. Their switch to more healthy food than delicious but dangerous food such as junk food.
For your information cancer is mostly caused by the way we live with our high consumption of processed foods, most of which have a high proportion of fat, salt or refined sugar, all known contributing factors to cancer. Also processed foods are all old food and are nutritionally dead foods. Some other causative factors for cancer are diets high in animal products, the consumption of alcohol everyday and the use of hormone therapy.
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http://www.yourhope.info