1. Includes data from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Latest five-year cancer survival in Wales compared to UK countries and other European and ICBP countries
Allemani et al. Global surveillance of trends in cancer survival (CONCORD-3): analysis of individual records for patients diagnosed with one of 18 cancers from 322 population-based registries in 71 countries Lancet 31 January 2018
Includes data from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

2. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 1a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for prostate cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

3. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 1b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for prostate cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

4. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 2a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for female breast cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

5. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 2b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for female breast cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

6. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 3a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for lung cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

7. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 3b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for lung cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

8. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 4a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for colon cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

9. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 4b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for colon cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

10. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 5a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for rectal cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

11. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 5b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for rectal cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

12. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 6a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for melanoma
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

13. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 6b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for melanoma
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

14. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 7a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for ovarian cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

15. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 7b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for ovarian cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

16. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 8a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for pancreatic cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

17. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 8b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for pancreatic cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

18. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 9a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for oesophageal cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

19. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 9b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for oesophageal cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

20. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 10a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for stomach cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

21. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 10b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for stomach cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

22. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 11a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for cervical cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

23. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 11b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for cervical cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

24. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 12a: Five year age standardised net survival (%) for liver cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

25. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Figure 12b: Trends in five year age standardised net survival (%) for liver cancer
Countries included are European countries and ICBP countries. Note that not all countries have 100% national coverage
Source: Allemani et al. (2018)
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

26. Summary Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
For a variety of reasons, by the time international survival studies are published they lag behind the latest available diagnosis years of many cancer registries, including that in Wales. Therefore there will be improvements since their publication, but the data remains fairly recent, and can still show survival relative to other countries, and trends over time.
CONCORD-3 only reports five year and not one year survival. The International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) Surv Mark2 study includes data on Wales from our registry, and will report on one year and five year survival for to when it is published soon in the Lancet Oncology scientific journal.
We selected 32 of the 71 CONCORD-3 countries based on high-income countries participating in ICBP Phase One studies and/or countries in the EUROCARE studies. We also included Romania and the Russian Federation from the United Nations European region. We considered Wales and the other UK countries’ CONCORD-3 survival results separately, and not the UK as a whole. The countries are:
Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, Ireland
Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden
Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Netherlands
Croatia, Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Bulgaria
Czech Republic, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia (Latvia not included due to data problems)
Australia, Canada
Romania, Russian Federation
We considered 12 of the 18 cancer types in CONCORD-3 (see figures 1-12 above). The following summarises Wales’ latest five year net survival ( ) for these cancers against the other countries. Wales ranked in the lower half of the included countries for all these cancer types, except for cancer of the oesophagus.
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

27. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Prostate cancer (figure 1)
Australia had the highest survival (94.5%) and Bulgaria the lowest (68.3%), overall. Wales’ survival (86.2%) was 22nd out of the 32 countries considered. 
This study showed that of the UK countries, England (89.3%) had the highest survival, Scotland (85.0%) the lowest, with Wales coming third of the four. However, only England was statistically significantly different to Wales.
Breast cancer (figure 2)
Australia had the highest survival (89.5%), with the Russian Federation the lowest (70.8%). Of the countries we considered, Wales survival (82.1%) was 22nd out of the 32 countries we considered.
Compared to other UK countries, Wales had the lowest breast cancer survival. England (86.0%) had the highest. England and Scotland’s survival was statistically significantly higher than Wales’.
Lung cancer (figure 3)
Of our selected countries, Canada had the best survival (20.6%). Bulgaria had the lowest (7.7%). Wales (12.0%) ranked 26 out of the 32 countries.
Wales had the lowest survival of all the UK countries, but with no statistically significant difference between it and Scotland and Northern Ireland. England had the highest survival (13.4%) of the UK countries - statistically significantly higher than Wales, although the difference was small.
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

28. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Colon cancer (figure 4)
Australia had the best survival (70.7%), and the Russian Federation had the lowest (44.9%). Wales (56.0%) ranked 26th out of the 32 countries.
The Wales survival rate was the lowest of the three other UK countries, all of which had statistically significantly higher survival. Northern Ireland’s (61.4%) survival was the highest of the UK countries.
Rectal cancer (figure 5)
The highest survival was in Australia (71.0%), and lowest in the Russian Federation (41.9%). Wales (59.2%) ranked 22nd out of the 32 countries we considered.
All the other UK countries had higher survival than Wales. Scotland (63.8%) had the highest. The differences between Wales and both Scotland and England were statistically significant.
Melanoma cancer of the skin (figure 6)
Of the 32 selected countries we compared, Scotland had the second highest survival, close to the highest survival, that was in Switzerland (93.6%). Bulgaria had the lowest survival (61.2%), overall. Wales (86.3%) was ranked 19th.
Wales had the lowest melanoma survival of the UK countries. All the other UK countries were statistically significantly higher than Wales. Scotland (93.2%) had the highest survival of these countries.
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

29. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Cancer of the ovary (figure 7)
Of the selected countries, Sweden had the highest survival (46.5%) and Malta the lowest (28.0%), although Malta’s was based on very small numbers. Wales (32.8%) ranked 29th.
Ovarian cancer survival in this study was similar for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, the latter have the lowest survival but one of all the countries. The survival in England (37.0%) was higher than the other UK countries, and this was statistically significant against all three.
Cancer of the pancreas (figure 8)
Wales (5.7%) ranked 26th of 29 countries (three countries of the total of 32 selected could not submit data for pancreatic cancer). Belgium had the highest survival (12.4%), and the Russian Federation the lowest (4.4%).
Wales was third lowest of the UK countries. Scotland (5.6%) was lowest by a small margin, and England (7.0%) had the highest survival of the UK. But there was no statistically significant difference between them.
Cancer of the oesophagus (figure 9)
Switzerland (23.9%) had the highest survival of 29 countries (three countries of the total of 32 elected could not submit data for oesophageal cancer), although this was not statistically significantly higher than Northern Ireland. Estonia (5.4%) had the lowest survival, overall. Wales (14.3%) ranked 15th out of 29 countries.
Scotland (13.4%) had the lowest survival of the UK, with no statistically significant difference with Wales. England (16.0%) was statistically significantly higher than Scotland, but not Wales. Northern Ireland (20.5%) was statistically significantly higher than all the UK countries.
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit

30. Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit
Stomach cancer (figure 10)
Belgium had the highest survival (37.5%) of the selected countries - more than double that in Wales. Bulgaria had the lowest (16.0%). Wales’s survival (18.3%) ranked 31 out of 32, being just higher than Bulgaria’s, although not statistically significantly different to it.
Within the UK, Wales survival was the lowest, similar to that in Scotland. Northern Ireland (21.2%) had the highest survival of the UK countries, although this was not statistically significantly higher than Wales. England’s survival of 21.0% was statistically significantly higher than Wales.
Cervical cancer (figure 11)
The highest survival of the selected countries was in Norway (73.3%), and the lowest was in Bulgaria (54.8%). Wales (64.3%) ranked 19th out of 31 countries (one country could not submit data).
Although Northern Ireland (68.6%) had the highest survival in the UK, and Scotland (61.8%) the lowest, there were no statistically significant differences between the UK countries. The survival in Wales and England (63.7%) were similar.
Primary liver cancer (figure 12)
Wales (13.0%) ranked 18th out of 31 countries (one of the 32 could not submit data). Belgium had the highest survival (20.7%) and Estonia the lowest (4.2%).
Of the UK countries, Wales’ survival was second highest, with England and Northern Ireland not being statistically significantly different to Wales. Scotland (17.6%) was statistically significantly higher than all the other UK countries.
Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit