EFFECTIVE screening and early diagnosis is the key to driving up cancer survival rates, a Worcestershire health chief has said.

Frances Howie, Worcestershire County Council’s head of health and wellbeing, was responding to new figures from the Office for National Statistics which show cancer patients face huge variations in survival rates depending on where they live.

The research tracked survival rates across the country between 2004 and 2006 and found that the percentage of people living for a year after diagnosis varied as much as 20 per cent from region to region.

The Three Counties cancer network area – covering south Worcestershire, Herefordshire and Gloucestershire – had survival rates higher than the national average for five of the eight common cancers studied – colon, lung, breast, prostate and oesophagus.

However, it lagged behind the national average for stomach, cervix and bladder cancers with the one-year survival rate for men with stomach cancer, 29.2 per cent, more than 15 per cent lower than the best area, north London, where the rate was 46.6 per cent.

Dr Howie said poorer survival rates for certain cancers may reflect a poor uptake of screening services, later diagnosis and poorer treatment in some areas.

“The key to improving survival is diagnosis at an early stage, which means encouraging patients to recognise symptoms, having effective screening programmes and providing access to optimal treatment,” she said.

Dr Howie says that people can also help themselves avoid or be effectively treated for cancer, and that prevention is always better than treatment.

“The risk of many cancers could be reduced through following a good diet, not smoking, physical activity and avoiding excess sunshine,” she said.

“It is also very important that when people are called up to attend screenings, such as cervical or breast screenings, that they attend those appointments.”