AQW 17173/17-22 Written question to the Minister of Health
To ask the Minister of Health how five-year and ten-year survival rates in Northern Ireland, for each type of cancer, compare to other parts of the United Kingdom, and the Republic of Ireland.
Asked by Stewart Dickson MLA on 13 April 2021
- Answered
- Written
- After due date
- Tabled
- 13 April 2021
- Answer due by
- 28 April 2021
- Answered
- 18 May 202135 days after tabling
- Department
- Department of Health
- Priority question
- No
Answer
At present the Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR) have not carried out ten-year survival analysis on any type of cancer. It does however routinely carry out five-year survival analysis on many of the cancer sites. This analysis was part of an international study led by the EUROCARE-5 project investigating survival of cancer patients diagnosed in 2000-2007 with residence in Europe. This survival information, and a UK and Republic of Ireland comparison, is detailed in Table 1 below for 25 major cancer sites.
| Northern Ireland | England | Scotland | Wales | Republic of Ireland | |||||||||||
| Site | RSC | LB | UB | RSC | LB | UB | RSC | LB | UB | RSC | LB | UB | RSC | LB | UB |
| Head and Neck | 48.96 | 44.36 | 54.03 | 46.11 | 45.33 | 46.91 | 43.05 | 41.08 | 45.11 | 42.70 | 39.79 | 45.82 | 42.09 | 39.01 | 45.42 |
| Esophagus | 16.12 * | 13.73 | 18.92 | 12.37 | 11.97 | 12.79 | 10.99 | 9.97 | 12.13 | 13.13 | 11.66 | 14.79 | 15.55 * | 13.88 | 17.43 |
| Stomach | 18.06 | 15.89 | 20.52 | 17.00 | 16.57 | 17.44 | 16.11 | 14.96 | 17.35 | 17.78 | 16.21 | 19.50 | 20.32 | 18.72 | 22.05 |
| Colorectal | 54.00 | 52.50 | 55.54 | 52.08 | 51.80 | 52.35 | 53.84 | 53.03 | 54.66 | 50.95 | 49.91 | 52.03 | 54.32 | 53.29 | 55.37 |
| Colon | 54.25 | 52.36 | 56.21 | 51.34 | 50.98 | 51.70 | 53.88 | 52.86 | 54.91 | 49.94 | 48.59 | 51.33 | 54.97 | 53.66 | 56.31 |
| Rectum | 54.32 | 51.85 | 56.90 | 53.74 | 53.30 | 54.17 | 54.19 | 52.86 | 55.56 | 52.61 | 50.94 | 54.33 | 53.01 | 51.36 | 54.72 |
| Liver | 8.87 | 5.89 | 13.36 | 8.24 | 7.71 | 8.81 | 7.40 | 6.08 | 9.00 | 8.71 | 6.72 | 11.30 | 12.99 | 10.53 | 16.02 |
| Pancreas | 3.02 | 1.84 | 4.96 | 4.67 | 4.37 | 4.98 | 3.44 | 2.76 | 4.30 | 5.37 | 4.31 | 6.69 | 6.88 | 5.76 | 8.22 |
| Lung | 11.04 | 10.03 | 12.16 | 8.80 | 8.63 | 8.98 | 8.65 | 8.22 | 9.11 | 8.55 | 7.91 | 9.24 | 11.82 | 11.10 | 12.59 |
| Soft Tissue | 58.40 | 51.85 | 65.76 | 57.63 | 56.39 | 58.90 | 56.39 | 52.62 | 60.43 | 60.20 | 55.74 | 65.02 | 62.70 | 58.19 | 67.55 |
| Skin Melanoma | 90.74 | 88.46 | 93.08 | 85.35 | 84.93 | 85.77 | 88.82 | 87.58 | 90.08 | 80.05 | 78.24 | 81.89 | 86.44 | 84.88 | 88.03 |
| Breast | 82.12 | 80.55 | 83.71 | 79.30 | 79.06 | 79.55 | 78.46 | 77.65 | 79.28 | 78.20 | 77.21 | 79.20 | 79.01 | 77.87 | 80.16 |
| Cervix Uteri | 61.13 | 56.34 | 66.32 | 59.59 | 58.72 | 60.47 | 57.89 | 55.45 | 60.44 | 58.10 | 55.00 | 61.38 | 58.87 | 55.75 | 62.16 |
| Corpus Uteri | 73.58 | 69.96 | 77.38 | 75.72 | 75.12 | 76.32 | 76.87 | 74.85 | 78.95 | 73.65 | 71.38 | 76.00 | 74.16 | 71.35 | 77.09 |
| Ovary | 32.27 | 29.37 | 35.45 | 30.57 | 30.05 | 31.11 | 34.02 | 32.51 | 35.60 | 31.66 | 29.71 | 33.74 | 30.34 | 28.35 | 32.46 |
| Prostate | 83.33 | 81.48 | 85.23 | 80.26 | 79.95 | 80.58 | 78.83 | 77.74 | 79.94 | 78.03 | 76.87 | 79.22 | 85.50 | 84.47 | 86.54 |
| Testis | 89.11 | 87.01 | 91.26 | 91.81 | 90.19 | 93.46 | 91.61 | 87.17 | 96.28 | 88.31 | 82.70 | 94.31 | - | - | - |
| Urinary Bladder | 76.13 | 73.81 | 78.52 | 72.34 | 71.97 | 72.71 | 48.98 | 47.10 | 50.94 | 71.67 | 70.22 | 73.16 | 73.40 | 71.51 | 75.33 |
| Kidney | 48.56 | 45.28 | 52.08 | 47.32 | 46.74 | 47.90 | 46.08 | 44.42 | 47.81 | 49.80 | 47.64 | 52.06 | 51.75 | 49.43 | 54.18 |
| Thyroid | 79.89 | 74.62 | 85.53 | 81.06 | 80.11 | 82.03 | 81.59 | 78.58 | 84.70 | 76.90 | 73.16 | 80.83 | 75.29 | 71.22 | 79.60 |
| Plasma cell | 42.30 | 38.28 | 46.75 | 35.41 | 34.64 | 36.19 | 36.62 | 34.27 | 39.12 | 36.69 | 33.86 | 39.76 | 36.15 | 33.31 | 39.24 |
| Hodgkin's lymphoma | 80.08 | 75.35 | 85.11 | 79.13 | 78.27 | 80.00 | 80.89 | 78.35 | 83.51 | 77.01 | 73.43 | 80.76 | 83.09 | 79.91 | 86.39 |
| Non Hodgkin lymphoma | 58.99 | 56.50 | 61.59 | 56.73 | 56.30 | 57.15 | 60.34 | 59.00 | 61.70 | 56.61 | 54.97 | 58.30 | 63.04 | 61.37 | 64.76 |
| SBLL/CLL | 61.53 | 55.53 | 68.19 | 68.83 | 67.96 | 69.72 | 75.66 | 72.91 | 78.50 | 67.19 | 64.05 | 70.49 | 75.69 | 72.68 | 78.82 |
| CML | 47.99 | 38.74 | 59.45 | 49.57 | 47.61 | 51.61 | 64.62 | 58.38 | 71.52 | 51.91 | 44.78 | 60.17 | 57.94 | 49.47 | 67.84 |
| All Sites | 51.01 | 50.47 | 51.56 | 50.20 | 50.11 | 50.29 | 46.62 | 46.35 | 46.90 | 49.94 | 49.58 | 50.29 | 53.95 | 53.57 | 54.32 |
Table 1. Age-standardised five-year Relative Survival (RSC %) for patients diagnosed in 2000-2007 for 25 major malignant cancers, by Regions of the UK and Republic of Ireland with corresponding 95% Confidence Intervals.
Source: Northern Ireland Cancer Registry (NICR)
Relative Survival Cumulative (RSC), Lower Bound 95% Confidence Interval (LB), Upper Bound 95% Confidence Interval (UB)
* Age standardised survival value is unexpectedly high compared to the European mean for this rapidly fatal cancer. This can be due to several reasons including: i) random variations and instability in one or more age classes; ii) problems in the follow up ascertainment; iii) problems in capturing all incident cases, particularly those with worse prognosis, or difficulties in accessing death certificates or in tracing back cases known by death certificate only.