Cancer Survival in England, cancers diagnosed 2015 to 2019, followed up to 2020

Users of cancer survival estimates include government organisations, health policymakers, cancer charities, academics and researchers, cancer registries, the general public and the media. Population-based cancer survival statistics are used to:

• inform national cancer plans such as the 6 strategic priorities set out by the Independent Cancer Task Force. These include the ambition to increase 12 month survival to 75% by 2020 for all cancers combined. 
• monitor the implementation of the NHS long term plan, including the ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages 1 or 2 by 2028 and a variety of services aiming to improve cancer prevention, earlier detection and treatment
• inform the NHS Outcomes Framework, which was established to monitor overall changes in performance of the NHS and the quality of health outcomes; the NHS Outcomes Framework includes indicators on 1- and 5-year survival from all cancers as well as from breast, lung, and colorectal cancer, and 5-year survival from all cancers in children
• demonstrate the pattern of survival by stage at diagnosis, to help show where earlier diagnosis could lead to improvements in survival
• provide reliable and accessible information about cancer outcomes to a wide range of groups, including patients and health professionals via health awareness campaigns, cancer information leaflets and web pages

Overall, cancer survival has been improving steadily in England and cancer mortality continues to decrease. Despite this, cancer survival in England remains lower than similar countries in Europe and around the world according to recent studies. These international comparisons have been reported by International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP), EUROCARE-5 and CONCORD-3.