The less survivable cancers: symptoms and key facts

Summary

Today, 11 January 2022, the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce (LSCT) launches its first ever Less Survivable Cancers Awareness Day, to raise the profile of these cancers and to highlight the critical importance of early diagnosis in improving survival.

Content

Currently, in the UK over 80,000 people are diagnosed with one of the less survivable cancers every year:

• Pancreatic cancer
• Lung cancer
• Brain tumours
• Oesophageal cancer
• Stomach cancer
• Liver cancer

Despite accounting for 51% of common cancer deaths, the less survivable cancers still suffer from low awareness amongst the public and health practitioners. Delays in diagnosis have a detrimental effect on survival of these rapidly-advancing diseases, which are currently difficult or impossible to treat at later stages.

If you have a less survivable cancer, you are twice as likely not to be diagnosed until your symptoms are severe enough to go to hospital, compared to someone with a more survivable cancer. Late diagnosis and a slow pathway to treatment can severely limit treatment options for patients, who then face poorer survival prospects.

The Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce have put together key facts for each of the six cancers.