§ Mr. Gryllsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services what consideration his Department has given to the recent report from the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, showing that sufferers from cancer now have a better chance of survival than in 1959; and what are the reasons for this improvement.
§ Sir George Young[pursuant to his reply, 2 April 1980, c. 266]: The Department has given preliminary consideration to the report "Cancer Statistics: Survival", and will be seeking the views of its Standing Medical Advisory Committee. The reported improved survival rates appear to result partly from advances in treatment which are reflected in the statistics for Hodgkin's disease, the leukaemias, cancer of the kidney and cancer of the larynx (in men). To some extent, they are also the result of changes in the way the figures have been collected and analysed.