http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544978/Too-old-cancer-treatment-NHS-writing-patients-75.htmlToo old to be given cancer treatment: NHS is 'writing off' patients who are over 75
Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts
But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival
The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse
By Jenny Hope
PUBLISHED: 19:20 EST, 23 January 2014 | UPDATED: 03:04 EST, 24 January 2014
Pensioners with cancer are being written off as too old to treat, campaigners said yesterday.
They cited figures showing survival rates for British patients aged 75 and over are among the worst in Europe.
Young lung cancer sufferers are only 10 per cent more likely to die within five years than their continental counterparts.
But pensioners with the disease have 44 per cent less chance of survival.
The figure for stomach cancer – at 45 per cent – is even worse.
And Britons with prostate cancer are a fifth less likely to survive than Europeans if they are 85 and over.
Just 43 per cent live for five years, compared with up to 67 per cent over the Channel.
Patients in their 70s and 80s with kidney cancer have a 32 per cent survival rate, compared with 46-53 per cent in Europe.
Ciarán Devane, of Macmillan Cancer Support, which helped produce the figures, said: ‘It’s wrong to write off older people as too old for treatment. With a proper assessment and appropriate treatment, our research shows that many older cancer patients can live for a long time and can even be cured.
‘While it’s good news that so many older people are benefiting from treatment, many thousands more could live longer if our survival rates for over 65s matched those in comparable countries.
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