Lung Cancer
Cabinet Office
Tracey Crouch (Chatham and Aylesford, Conservative)
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office
(1) what assessment he has made of the level of mortality from lung cancer in (a) Medway Primary Care Trust, (b) West Kent Primary Care Trust and (c) England in each of the last three years;
(2) what assessment he has made of the incidence rate of lung cancer in (a) Medway Primary Care Trust, (b) West Kent Primary Care Trust and (c) England in each of the last three years;
(3) what estimate he has made of the (a) five and (b) one year survival rates of lung cancer patients in (A) England, (B) Medway Primary Care Trust and (C) West Kent Primary Care Trust in each of the last three years.
Nick Hurd (Parliamentary Secretary (Civil Society), Cabinet Office; Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, Conservative)
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Stephen Penneck, dated March 2012
As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent parliamentary questions.
Table 1 shows the number of deaths and the age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population where lung cancer was the underlying cause of death, in Medway Primary Care Trust, West Kent Primary Care Trust and England, for 2007 to 2010 (the latest year available).
Table 2 shows the number of newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer and the age-standardised lung cancer incidence rate per 100,000 population in Medway Primary Care Trust, West Kent Primary Care Trust and England, for 2007 to 2009 (the latest year available).
One and five-year relative survival estimates for adults (aged 15-99 years), for 21 common cancers, including lung cancer, in England, are published annually and are available here:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/all-releases.html? definition=tcm%3A77-21521
Survival is calculated from the date of diagnosis.
Table 3, provides one and five-year relative survival for lung cancer for patients diagnosed in 2003-2007, 2004-2008 and 2005-2009, followed up to 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.
Survival rates for lung cancer are not available for primary care trusts in England. However, one-year survival rates for all cancers combined are available. For patients diagnosed during 1996-2009 and followed up to the end of 2010, the figures are available on the National Statistics website at:
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/all-releases.html? definition=tcm%3A77-210452
Figures are presented for each of the 11 years from 1996-2006, for all adults (persons aged 15-99 years), persons aged 55-64 years and persons aged 75-99 years.
Figures on cancer incidence and mortality in the United Kingdom and constituent countries are published annually and are available here:
www.ons.gov.uk/ons/publications/all-releases.html?definition =tcm%3A77-21518
| Table 1. Number of deaths and age-standardised mortality rate per 100,000 population (with 95% confidence intervals) where underlying cause of death was lung cancer, England, Medway PCT and West Kent PCT, 2007-10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | |||||
| Number | Rate | Lower CI | Upper CI | ||
| England | 2007 | 27,680 | 38.4 | 37.9 | 38.8 |
| 2008 | 28,222 | 38.5 | 38.0 | 38.9 | |
| 2009 | 28,060 | 37.6 | 37.2 | 38.0 | |
| 2010 | 28,065 | 37.1 | 36.7 | 37.5 | |
| Medway PCT | 2007 | 136 | 43.6 | 36.3 | 50.9 |
| 2008 | 130 | 41.2 | 34.1 | 48.3 | |
| 2009 | 147 | 46.7 | 39.1 | 54.2 | |
| 2010 | 131 | 41.8 | 34.7 | 49.0 | |
| West Kent PCT | 2007 | 333 | 33.3 | 29.7 | 36.9 |
| 2008 | 370 | 36.2 | 32.5 | 39.9 | |
| 2009 | 321 | 31.3 | 27.9 | 34.7 | |
| 2010 | 330 | 31.8 | 28.4 | 35.2 | |
| (1) Data extracted using the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) codes C33 'Malignant neoplasm of trachea' and C34 'Malignant neoplasm of bronchus and lung'. (2) Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the European Standard Population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. (3) The lower and upper confidence limits have been provided. These form a confidence interval, which is a measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and shows the range of uncertainty around the estimated figure. Calculations based on small numbers of events are often subject to random fluctuations. As a general rule, if the confidence interval around one figure overlaps with the interval around another, we cannot say with certainty that there is more than a chance difference between the two figures. (4) Figures are based on boundaries as of February 2012 and exclude deaths of non-residents. (5) Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year Source: Office for National Statistics | |||||
| Table 2. Number of newly diagnosed cases of lung cancer and age-standardised incidence rate per 100,000 population (with 95% confidence intervals), England, Medway PCT and West Kent PCT, 2007-10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | |||||
| Number | Rate | Lower CI | Upper CI | ||
| England | 2007 | 32,881 | 46.6 | 46.1 | 47.1 |
| 2008 | 33,628 | 47.0 | 46.5 | 47.5 | |
| 2009 | 33,150 | 45.8 | 45.3 | 46.3 | |
| Medway PCT | 2007 | 147 | 47.1 | 39.5 | 54.7 |
| 2008 | 143 | 46.0 | 38.5 | 53.5 | |
| 2009 | 160 | 50.8 | 42.9 | 58.6 | |
| West Kent PCT | 2007 | 412 | 42.4 | 38.3 | 46.5 |
| 2008 | 430 | 42.4 | 38.4 | 46.4 | |
| 2009 | 385 | 39.5 | 35.6 | 43.5 | |
| (1) Data extracted using the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) codes C33 'Malignant neoplasm of trachea' and C34 'Malignant neoplasm of bronchus and lung'. (2) Age-standardised incidence rates per 100,000 population, standardised to the European Standard Population. Age-standardised rates are used to allow comparison between populations which may contain different proportions of people of different ages. (3) The lower and upper confidence limits have been provided. These form a confidence interval, which is a measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and shows the range of uncertainty around the estimated figure. Calculations based on small numbers of events are often subject to random fluctuations. As a general rule, if the confidence interval around one figure overlaps with the interval around another, we cannot say with certainty that there is more than a chance difference between the two figures. (4) Figures are based on boundaries as of February 2012 and exclude deaths of non-residents. (5) Figures are for deaths registered in each calendar year. Source: Office for National Statistics | |||||
| Table 3. One and five-year relative survival estimates for patients diagnosed with lung cancer, England, followed up to 2008-10 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) | |||||||
| One-year survival | Five-year survival | ||||||
| Percentage | Lower CI | Upper CI | Percentage | Lower CI | Upper CI | ||
| Patients diagnosed in 2003-07, followed up to 2008 | Males | 26.6 | 26.3 | 26.9 | 7.0 | 6.8 | 7.3 |
| Females | 29.3 | 28.9 | 29.7 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 9.0 | |
| Patients diagnosed in 2004-08, followed up to 2009 | Males | 27.5 | 27.2 | 27.8 | 7.5 | 7.2 | 7.8 |
| Females | 30.1 | 29.7 | 30.5 | 8.7 | 8.4 | 9.0 | |
| Patients diagnosed in 2005-09, followed up to 2010 | Males | 28.1 | 27.8 | 28.5 | 7.8 | 7.5 | 8.0 |
| Females | 31.1 | 30.8 | 31.5 | 9.3 | 9.0 | 9.7 | |
| (1 )Data extracted using the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10) codes C33 'Malignant neoplasm of trachea' and C34 'Malignant neoplasm of bronchus and lung'. (2) Relative survival is an estimate of the probability of survival from the cancer alone. For convenience, it is expressed as a percentage in the range 0-100%. It can be interpreted as the survival of cancer patients after taking into account the background mortality that the patients would have experienced had they not had cancer. Background mortality is derived from life tables of all-cause mortality rates in the general population. (3) Estimates provided for both males and females are age-specific and have not been standardised to account for changes in the age-structure of the population through time. (4) Differences between survival estimates for the two periods are taken as the arithmetic difference, for example 12% is shown as 2% (not 20%) higher than 10%. Survival figures are rounded to one decimal place, but the differences are based on exact underlying figures. (5) The lower and upper confidence limits have been provided. These form a confidence interval, which is a measure of the statistical precision of an estimate and shows the range of uncertainty around the estimated figure. Calculations based on small numbers of events are often subject to random fluctuations. As a general rule, if the confidence interval around one figure overlaps with the interval around another, we cannot say with certainty that there is more than a chance difference between the two figures. Source: Office for National Statistics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. | |||||||