Differences in cancer awareness and beliefs between Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK (the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership): do they contribute to differences in cancer survival?

A selection of abstracts of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The abstracts on this page have been chosen and edited by John R. Radford.

Abstract

Why is there relatively poor cancer survival in the UK?

Main

Forbes LJL, Simon AE et al. Br J Cancer 2013; 108: 292–300

The UK has relatively poor one-year cancer survival compared with those living in Australia, Canada and Sweden, but similar to that in Denmark. In this study, a population-based telephone interview exploring cancer awareness and beliefs was carried out with almost 20,000 ≥50-year-olds, living in six high-income countries. In contrast to the UK, Danish people had a high awareness of age-related risk of cancer as did those in Norway and Sweden. Apart from this lack of awareness in the UK, another possible explanation for this poor cancer survival could be that those in the UK are 'more concerned about embarrassment because of the traditional “stiff upper lip”'. Poor survival in Denmark may be as a consequence of the primary care doctor perceiving that they have a role in 'gate-keeping' secondary care services.