Trends are more promising, but you should not disregard any abnormalities
Cancer survival rates are on the up - having increased by nearly 13 percent in the past decade - but that does not change the fact that cancer does still happen.
We need to be aware of the signs to detect the disease at the first possible opportunity.
According to the UK government, cancer survival rates have increased by 11 percent from 2001 to 2016 - from 62 percent to 72.8 percent.
This is promising but with some cancers much harder to detect at an earlier stage than others, paying attention to any small changes in your body is vital.
“Some cancers are notoriously difficult to diagnose,” said Shira Avner, a pharmacist from London. “Breast and testicular cancer are more straightforward, whereas cancers like bladder, lung and bowel, symptoms may not be pronounced until Stage 3 or 4.
“If something does not feel right, you ought to get it checked.”
In the UK, current survival rates for bladder cancer are sitting at about 70% one year on from diagnosis. This compared to the more “easily identifiable” testicular cancer is 28 percent less.
The overall trend shows that the earlier cancer is detected, the better chance of survival.
“I ignored some of my signs and normalised them,” said Jarleth Eaton, a Stage 4 Hodgkin’s Lymphoma survivor. “Sleeping after work for several hours became normal to me. It was only when the lump on my neck formed that I went to the doctors three or four weeks later when I eventually had a day off.”
Jarleth’s cancer was only then diagnosed a couple of months after he started sleeping more. Had he taken the tiredness more seriously, his illness may well have been caught at an earlier stage.
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