Cancer: People in UK’s poorest areas have longer waits for care and higher death rates

People living in the most deprived areas of the UK are much more likely to die from cancer, with death rates almost 60% higher than in the most affluent areas, a new analysis has found.

The work by Cancer Research UK shows that around 28 400 extra deaths from cancer deaths a year were linked to socioeconomic inequality—calculated by assessing the number of deaths that might have been avoided if the whole country had the same age and sex specific mortality as the UK’s wealthiest areas.1

The report is an update to a similar one published in 2020 by the charity, and it notes that little progress has been made since then in tackling cancer inequalities.

“Stark differences between the most and least deprived continue to be seen across the cancer pathway, from prevalence of risk factors, cancer diagnosis, through to survival and mortality,” said the report. …