To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many cases of breast cancer have been (a) diagnosed and (b) cured in the East Midlands in each of the last 10 years. (95179)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 20 October 2006:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking how many cases of breast cancer have been (a) diagnosed and (b) cured in the East Midlands in each of the last 10 years [95179].

Numbers of newly diagnosed cases of breast cancers registered in the East Midlands government office region between 1995 and 2004 are given in Table 1 below.

It is not possible to say whether or not patients are cured. For most cancers, but not breast cancer, five-year survival rates are often taken to be ‘cure’ rates. Information on long-term breast cancer survival up to 2003 is available for all government office regions and can be found on the NS website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/statbase/Product.asp?vlnk=14172&More=n

The information for the East Midlands is given in Table 2 below.

Five-year age-standardised relative survival (%) from breast cancer in the East Midlands government office region for patients diagnosed between 1994-96 and 1997-99 and followed up between the ends of 2001 and 2004 are given in Table 3 below.