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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:

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.

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NEWS
Scottish C Diff outbreak kills pensioners

03 July 2008 17:55:57
An outbreak of the bug Clostridium Difficile has led to a record number of pensioners in Scotland contracting the virus which could effect UK life insurance for those that have C Diff.

Figures showed that there were 1861 cases of C Diff among the over 65s between January and March of this year - a 14 per cent increase from a similar time period in 2007.

These figures are released following an outbreak at Vale of Leven Hospital in west Dunbartonshire, where nine people were killed and a further 50 were infected with the C Diff bug.

Health Secretary, Nicola Sturgeon, said that she had asked health boards to ensure systems for tackling hospital infections are being followed.

She said: "Scotland has one of the most comprehensive sets of policies and procedures to manage healthcare associated infection (HAI) in Europe.

"However, recent events at the Vale of Leven show how vital it is for boards to ensure that these policies and procedures are applied to a high standard."

Normal fatality rates for people that contract C Diff are at 7 per cent, however at Vale Leven this increased to 30 per cent - when taking into account the further 16 deaths directly linked to the outbreak.

Contracting a superbug may well effect patients life insurance policies. ADNFCR-980-ID-18669385-ADNFCR


Stem cell research could help heart disease patients

03 July 2008 17:48:03
A government fertility watchdog has given the go-ahead for stem cell research that will be used to study fatal heart diseases.

Warwick Medical School researchers will use part-human and part-animal embryos for the first time to carry out their study which could eventually have an effect on the cost of life insurance policies for patients with heart disease.

The team plans to create embryos that are 99.9 per cent human DNA and 0.1 per cent pig DNA and stem cells extracted from the embryos will be grown into human heart cells.

Chemicals will be used to destroy the pig DNA before the researchers grow the human heart cells.

Justin St John, heading up the research team, explained what they hope to achieve from the process: "Ultimately they will help us understand where some of the problems associated with these diseases arise, and they could also provide models for the pharmaceutical industry to test new drugs."

Licenses have been granted to two other British teams that are hoping to create hybrid embryos but neither planned to extract animal DNA from the stem cells first.

Conditions such as heart disease can often have an impact on the cost of UK life insurance. ADNFCR-980-ID-18669362-ADNFCR


Heart op boy will die in two weeks without transplant

02 July 2008 17:03:39
A baby born with half a heart has just two weeks to live unless a donor can be found, doctors have told his parents.

Born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, Theo Davies is currently on a life support machine which can only keep him alive for a short period of time, unless he has a transplant.

Talking about her desperation, Theo's mother Rebecca Giles, said: "People say 'Oh, it must be a nightmare for you'. But it's worse than that. I can't think of a worse situation to be in."

She continued: "Our child will die in two weeks unless we can find a heart donor. But to find another heart for Theo means that another child will die."

Theo has already had to endure five major operations since he was born and survived his heart stopping for an hour last week.

Surgeons in the US are about to undertake the first implantation of a Jarvik heart pump which, it is hoped, could help to solve a shortage of donor hearts.

One of the biggest difficulties facing people with heart problems is securing regular life insurance.ADNFCR-980-ID-18667021-ADNFCR