Britain remains the sick man of Europe. Professor Sir Mike Richards’s report finds that although progress has been made on cancer treatments, diagnosis rates, and therefore the chances of survival, lag behind European standards. A deluge of statistical analysis supports Richards’s findings. The European Journal of Cancer’s recent research into solid cancers, such as breast cancer and melanoma, demonstrated that the speed of diagnosis and survival rates in the UK were “20% below” the European average. Additionally, the table below, which is taken from 2009’s OECD health data, illustrates that the gap between the number of cancer deaths per 100,000 population in Europe and the UK has widened.
| 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | |
| UK | 190 | 188.6 | 184.5 | 183.4 | 181.9 | 178.7 | 175.5 | 173.3 | 172 | 170.7 | |
| EU Average | 185 | 183.1 | 182 | 180.7 | 169.1 | 166.4 | 165.5 | 156 | 152.5 | 153.1 | 142.1 |
A further problem is the shocking regional variation in performanance.
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