Staggering 2MILLION years of life ‘are lost to cancer every year in Britain’

More than two million years of life are lost to cancer in the UK every year, according to new research.

In the first analysis of its kind, experts have worked out the number of years UK lives were cut short by as a result of the disease.

A team from Cancer Research UK, King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London used average life expectancy and data from cancer deaths to work out the time lost.

Using the age at which people died, they estimate that the number of cancer deaths each year in the UK is cutting lives short by 2,308,277 years.

Dr Judith Offman, who led the work at King’s College London, said: ‘This analysis allows us to see the impact cancer has on patients and their families, and the precious time that is lost as a result.’

Around 167,000 lives are lost to cancer every year – some 460 people every day.

High diagnosis and poor survival rates mean around a fifth of the total lost years are from lung cancer, with more than 500,000 per.

Patients typically die 14 years early from lung, liver, pancreas and stomach cancer, 17 years early from breast and ovary, 25 years for cervical cancer and 33, testicular.

Some 213,000 years of life are lost to bowel cancer each year and around 197,000 to breast cancer, they predict.

But whilst the growing population has seen overall numbers of years of life lost per year to all cancers combined has risen since the 1980s rates have gone down by 15 per cent over the three decades.

Rates of stomach cancer have fallen by 59 per cent, cervical, by 58 per cent and breast cancers have down by 39 per cent thanks to diagnosis and treatment breakthroughs.

The total number of years of life lost to cervical cancer in 1988 was around 43,600 but the cervical screening programme has seen this plummet to around 21,800 in 2017.

The analysis shows liver, melanoma and kidney cancer have seen increases in rates of years of life lost, largely because of increases in numbers of cases but other cancer types have seen rates fall.

Rising obesity and alcohol consumption is blamed for the rise in years lost to liver cancer with rates up 157 per cent in 30 years.

Meanwhile, testicular cancer has a smaller number of lost years overall because survival rates are good. But for those who don’t make it, the average years lost is high at 33 because the die young.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said the fight was far from over.

Praising the government announcement last week on raising the age of sale on tobacco products as ‘a welcome step’, she said: ‘This new analysis is a stark reminder of the impact cancer has on so many people’s lives in the UK today.

‘Behind statistics are people affected by cancer, and these years of life lost are missed chances to reach milestones and spend precious time with loved ones.’