§ Mr. FearnTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many(a) female and (b) male cancer sufferers there are in England and Wales. [139664]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonI have been asked to reply.
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Ronnie Fearn, dated 30 November 2000:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the numbers of female and male cancer sufferers in England and Wales. (139663)
The latest available estimate is for 1993(a) In that year there were about 600,000 females (2.3 per cent. of the female population) and 365,000 (1.5 per cent. of the male population) in England and Wales who had been diagnosed with cancer(b).
- (a) Patients diagnosed from 1971 (when records began) to 1992 who were still alive in 1993.
898W - (b) All malignant neoplasms (International Classification of Diseases Tenth Revision (ICD10) codes C00-C97, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer (ICD10 C44).
These results were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in the article 'Cancer trends in England and Wales, 1950–1999' in Health Statistics Quarterly No.8 earlier this month. This is the first reliable information on cancer prevalence to be produced. A copy of this publication has been placed in the House of Commons Library.