Responding to claims by Macmillan Cancer Support that a record 2.5 million people will be living with cancer in the UK in 2015, Professor Nick James, Director of the University of Warwick’s Cancer Research Unit, said: “This is both bad and paradoxically good news.

“It’s good news because it reflects improvements in health in earlier life leading to improved life expectancy. As cancer is a disease of the later decades of life, the rise is driven by more people living longer. The rise also reflects improved cancer care leading to more people either living longer with cancer or being cured.

“The bad news is that all this increases pressure on the NHS at a time when pressures have never been greater. Well-resourced cancer care improves and maintains people’s quality (and quantity) of life and can help prevent emergency admissions and pressures on already overstretched inpatient resources.”

Note to editors:

Professor Nick James is available for TV and radio interviews today from the University of Warwick’s broadcast studio.

Issued by Lee Page, Communications Manager, Press and Policy Office, The University of Warwick. Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255, Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221. Email: l.page@warwick.ac.uk.

 

Contact:

Lee Page, Communications Manager

Tel: +44 (0)2476 574 255

Mob: +44 (0)7920 531 221

Email: l.page@warwick.ac.uk