A new report, published by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), has found that more lung cancer patients are living for longer than ever, with 37% of patients alive at least 1 year after diagnosis compared to a rate of 31% in 2010.
The National Lung Cancer Audit (NLCA) 2017 annual report found that more cancers are being diagnosed at an earlier stage, with one in eight lung cancers found at the very earliest stage. It also highlighted a rise in diagnosis in patients aged over 70, the age group in which most lung cancer is present. There has been a rise of 5% more diagnoses in this age group since 2007.
The audit has for the first time identified the highest and lowest performing trusts from across England and Wales. This is intended to help improve learning across the nation and to reduce regional variance in lung cancer outcomes by looking into why top performing trusts are achieving better outputs than the lowest performing trusts. National performance remains at consistent levels when compared to previous years, but persisting variation across different individual organisations offers the opportunity to improve the care of and outcomes for lung cancer patients.
Paul Beckett, senior clinical lead for the National Lung Cancer Audit, said:
It is hugely encouraging to see that more lung cancer patients than ever are beating the disease and still alive years after initial diagnosis. It is important that patients are diagnosed as early as possible, and it is therefore really positive news to see there has been a rise in those being seen at the very first stage.
There is, however, still work to be done and I hope that through the work of this audit identifying practices that are performing well, other trusts will adopt best practice seen at high-performing hospitals so that patients do not suffer from a variance in care depending on where they live.
Read the full NLCA 2017 report, and follow the conversation on Twitter.