Europe cancer in Germany very treatable

Where in Europe lives longer with cancer

05/12/2013

Medical progress is making cancer patients in Europe getting older and older. Considering the chances of surviving with this disease, people in Germany have a more favorable prognosis than in most other European countries. People diagnosed with cancer live on average even five years longer in this country than in any other country in Europe.

The survival rate of cancer, in particular, is an important benchmark in assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of health systems. In order to identify disparities in national health systems, scientists analyzed the data from about 10 million Europeans who had been diagnosed with cancer during the period 2000-2007. The focus was on 46 cancers, weighted by age and country. The scientists were interested in the "5-year survival rate“. Their results were in the British journal „The Lancet Oncology“ released.

It has been shown that cancer patients in Eastern European countries have significantly lower chances of survival than in most other Western European countries. Colon cancer survived more than 62 percent five years after the first diagnosis in Germany. This value is the highest in the European comparison. In Latvia, on the other hand, only 43 percent of the patients survived the same period. Germany also has a good chance of survival with breast cancer. According to the study, 84 percent of women still lived with their diagnosis within the first five years. For comparison, in the Eastern European countries it was 74 percent. These are values ​​that are very positive for those affected. Lung cancer patients, on the other hand, had poor prospects. Only 16 percent of patients in Germany still lived after five years.

Eastern European patients have worse prognoses
Obvious is the fact that patients from Eastern Europe had worse prognoses than Western European cancer patients. But the differences are not nearly as serious as they were two decades ago. Overall, Europe is on a positive path, according to study leader Roberta De Angelis of the National Health Institute in Rome. „This reflects the progress made in cancer prevention and treatment.“ The differences arise because of the different levels of spending by the countries on health care. „Countries where the state spent more money on the health system on average had a better chance of survival than countries that spent less“, write the scientists. But it is not just public spending that influences life expectancy. Elementary are also societal and economic factors of the individual countries. Education and the general lifestyle also played a role in assessing health status.

Not all Western European countries had a greater chance of survival despite the better overall prognosis. The UK, Ireland and Denmark underperformed the European average for most cancers. The scientists suspect that this is mainly due to late diagnoses. This shows the impact of healthcare savings, which is also reflected in preventive care and prevention campaigns. In the UK, only 17 percent of gastric cancer patients lived five years after the finding, and in Denmark it was as low as 16 percent. At 31 percent, the share of survivors in Germany was almost twice as high. The European average here was 25.1 percent. (Fr)