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Background information

1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point during their lifetime.

1 in 4 people will die from cancer.

Out of more than 200 different types of cancer, 4 - lung, breast, colorectal and prostate - account for over half of all new cases.
(Non-melanoma skin cancer is excluded from these figures.)
(Cancer Research UK , 2002)

A quarter of a million people in the UK will contract cancer this year.

More than half the people who contract cancer of the breast, cervix, larynx, testis, uterus, or malignant melanoma, will survive for a minimum of 5 years.

Survival rates for many other cancers are also improving.
( Munich Re, 2002)

It is estimated that 1 woman in 9 will develop breast cancer at some point in her life.

In 1997 38,000 women were newly diagnosed with breast cancer - and new cases are steadily increasing year on year.

On average 60% of women diagnosed with breast cancer will still be alive 5 years later.
(Breast Cancer Campaign, 2002)

In 2000, over 150,000 people died from cancer. That's one person every 3 and a half minutes.

In 2000, more men and women died from lung cancer than any other type of cancer - 20,600 men and 13,000 women. That's almost 100 deaths every day.
(Office for National Statistics, 2001)

Definition

Any malignant tumour characterised by the uncontrolled growth and spread of malignant cells and invasion of tissue. The term cancer includes leukaemia and Hodgkin’s disease but the following are excluded:

• all tumours which are histologically described as pre-malignant, as non-invasive or as cancer in situ;
• all tumours of the prostate unless histologically classified as having a Gleason score greater than six or having progressed to at least TNM classification T2N0M0;
• any skin cancer other than invasive malignant melanoma.

What does this mean?

Cancer is a malignant tumour or a malignancy. It causes uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells which invade, damage and destroy surrounding bodily tissue. These cells can then spread and cause damage to other parts of the body.

Non-invasive or cancer in situ is a very early stage cancer which has not invaded surrounding tissue and has not spread throughout the body. Treatment is relatively easy and successful. Cancers in situ are therefore not covered.

In line with Government policy, screening for prostate cancer will become widely available to men in the not too distant future. The key purpose of this screening is to detect prostate tumours at a much earlier stage than at present – before they cause any noticeable symptoms and when the illness can be more easily treated and cured. Accordingly, in line with the new ABI cancer definition, cover the less advanced prostate cancers is usually excluded.

More advanced and more aggressive cases (typically those that are currently detected) will continue to be covered. Most skin cancers are also easy to treat and are also excluded. However malignant melanoma is a very serious form of skin cancer which can very quickly spread throughout the body. This form of skin cancer is therefore included.