Cancer Registration Statistics, England 2019

For the first time, this bulletin is including a summary of cancer incidence by Index of Multiple Deprivation (IMD). The IMD is the official measure of relative deprivation for small areas in England and is based on the postcode of residence at diagnosis. The IMD was grouped into quintiles, which were weighted so that the quintiles were equal in terms of the number of Lower-layer Super Output Areas (LSOAs).

Figure 7 shows that the age-standardised cancer incidence rate in 2019 was highest for both males and females living in the most deprived areas. The rate decreased consistently for each deprivation quintile from most deprived to least deprived. Although, males living in the least deprived areas still had a higher rate (649 per 100,000 people) than females living in the most deprived areas (621 per 100,000 people).

The gap between the least and most deprived quintiles was greater for males than females. The age-standardised cancer incidence rate was 16% higher for males living in the most deprived areas (756 per 100,000 people) compared to the least deprived areas (649 per 100,000 people). For females, the rate was 20% higher for those living in the most deprived areas (621 per 100,000 people) compared to the least deprived areas (519 per 100,000 people).

Lung cancer had the largest difference in age-standardised incidence rates between those living in the most and least deprived areas. Figure 8 shows that for males and females, the age-standardised cancer incidence rate for lung cancer was almost triple for people living in the most deprived areas when compared with the least deprived areas. For males, the rate was 145 per 100,000 people living in the most deprived areas compared to 56 per 100,000 people living in the least deprived areas.  For females, the rate was 117 per 100,000 people living in the most deprived areas compared to 42 per 100,000 people living in the least deprived areas.

Although, for most cancers the age-standardised cancer incidence rate was highest for people living in the most deprived areas, there are some cancers where the rate is highest for people living in the least deprived areas. For example, prostate cancer, breast cancer, melanoma of skin, and NMSC.

Figure 9 shows that for both males and females, the age-standardised cancer incidence rate for people with NMSC living in the least deprived areas was over 60% higher compared to the rate for people living in the most deprived areas. For males, the rate was 213 per 100,000 people living in the most deprived areas and 350 per 100,000 people living in the least deprived areas. For females, the rate was 138 per 100,000 people living in the most deprived areas and 231 per 100,000 people living in the least deprived areas.

The rate of prostate cancer was 24% higher for males living in the least deprived areas (208 per 100,000 people) when compared to males living in the most deprived areas (168 per 100,000 people). The rate of breast cancer in females was 14% higher for females living in the least deprived areas (179 per 100,000 people) when compared to females living in the most deprived areas (157 per 100,000 people).