Survival for testicular cancer has risen by almost 30% in the last 40 years, with nearly all men now beating the disease, according to Cancer Research UK.
These figures show that more than 96% of men now survive testicular cancer in the UK, compared with less than 70% in the 1970s. These improvements are largely because of the drug cisplatin. Men with advanced, incurable prostate cancer who are treated with the latest drugs also have nearly three times the life expectancy of men treated a decade ago, according to data from the Royal Marsden Hospital. Men who were treated in trials or under drug access schemes at the hospital survived 41 months on average, compared with between 13 and 16 months ten years ago. All had prostate cancer which had spread and no longer responded to standard hormone treatments. Just over three-quarters of the patients received a chemotherapy drug called docetaxel, which was approved for NHS use in 2005. In addition, half were treated with abiraterone, a new prostate cancer drug developed by UK scientists, that only became available on the NHS last year. A small number of patients were offered three other novel therapies – enzalutamide, cabazitaxel and radium.
