Scotland and the rest of the UK "lag woefully" behind other wealthy countries for cancer survival, according a damning new analysis.

A report by the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce estimated that 8000 lives a year could be saved if the UK performed as well as the five top-ranked nations - Korea, Belgium, the United States, Australia and China - in relation to lung, liver, brain, oesophageal, pancreatic and stomach cancers.

All six are among the deadliest forms of cancer, partly because they are difficult to detect.

Combined, they account for around half of cancer deaths annually in the UK.

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Seven in every 10 patients pancreatic cancer patients in the UK receive no treatment at all and of the 10,000 people diagnosed annually, just 10% receive surgery - the only potentially curative intervention.

Five-year survival rates in Scotland ranked worse than the UK average for lung, oesophageal, pancreatic and stomach cancers, and were among the worst overall.

On pancreatic cancer, Scotland ranked 32 out of the 33 countries evaluated, and 31 out of 33 for stomach cancer.

However, Scotland's five-year survival for liver cancer was notably better than other UK nations - at 12, compared to 25 in England and 21 for the UK overall.

The expert report said the reasons for the UK and Scotland's poor performance were "complex" but included a mix of delayed diagnosis and slower access to treatment.

Many patients with a less survivable cancer are only being diagnosed after an emergency admission to hospital or an urgent GP referral once symptoms have become severe.

Lorraine Dallas, chair of the taskforce's Scotland group, said: "It's multi-factorial.

"One, we're talking about cancers where in some cases there aren't many people diagnosed each year, so there's that symptom awareness side of things - we're not making sure that everyone with a probable cancer is picked up in primary care as quickly as we would like.

"But once somebody is in the diagnostic process, we still have issues in terms of lining up tests and access to things like CT, MRI and so on to ensure that people are diagnosed as quickly as possible.

"We know for example in pancreatic cancer and brain tumours, for example, that by the time people have gone from diagnosis through the various tests required to determine a treatment, they might no longer be fit for treatment.

"That's due to a mix of both workforce and diagnostic equipment."

Averaged across all six cancers, South Korea ranked top overall for survival.

The most recent available data from the OECD shows that Korea has around 42 CT scanners and 36 MRI scanners per million people, and 13 hospital beds for every 1000 people.

This compares to 2.4 hospital beds per 1000 in the UK and - for every million people - nine CT scanners and seven MRI scanners.

Both nations had similar levels of nurses, but the UK had more practising doctors per head.

Ms Dallas said that differences in rankings between UK nations could be skewed by comparatively small numbers of cases, but that some countries had benefitted from teams of specialist clinicians who had fostered rapid diagnostic pathways for their cancer type.

She cited the example of Northern Ireland, which ranked eight out of the 33 countries for oesophageal survival compared to 25 in Scotland.

The Herald: Five-year survival ranking by cancer type and UK nationFive-year survival ranking by cancer type and UK nation (Image: LSCT)

Ms Dallas added that Scotland was taking too long to implement measures which could improve early detection and survival - such as lung cancer screening.

The UK's National Screening Committee has recommended that low-dose CT scans should be targeted to all current and ex-smokers aged 55 to 74 who are deemed high risk, but implementation in Scotland is currently limited to regional pilot projects.

She added that the "optimum" pathway would see cancer patients diagnosed within 28 days of referral for tests.

"Up until now, we haven't been doing that very well," said Ms Dallas.

"Something we can learn from countries with faster diagnosis is better routes for vague symptoms, where someone is presenting to the GP with ongoing symptoms where nobody is quite sure what it is.

"We've got some examples of that happening with pilot sites across Scotland, but what we're not doing is replicating the best of what we do across the country evenly.

"Deprivation is part of it, but if we could do what we do well consistently we would improve outcomes.

"I don't want to present too bleak a picture. The UK is improving outcomes and treatment rates, but we are consistently doing it at a slow rate which means we're still at the bottom of the table."

Jackie Baillie MSP added: "Less survivable cancers are not uncommon and it's unacceptable that we're lagging so far behind other countries when it comes to survivability.

"Politicians of all parties across the UK need to come together to improve outcomes for these patients by working towards better diagnosis and treatment options."

The Scottish Government said cancer mortality in Scotland has fallen by 11% over the past decade, and that it had deployed seven mobile MRI scanners and five CT scanners across the country last year to boost capacity and would boost investment in chemotherapy services by £10.5 million over the next four years. 

A spokeswoman said: "The earlier cancer is diagnosed the easier it is to treat, and even cure, which is why earlier and faster diagnosis is a pivotal part of our new 10-year Cancer Strategy and we continue to invest in our Detect Cancer Earlier Programme.

"Cancer remains a national priority for the NHS and the Scottish Government, and we continue to have a focus on the less survivable cancers and improving their outcomes.

"Interim evaluation of our Rapid Cancer Diagnostic Services, currently operational in five NHS Boards across Scotland, shows that they are diagnosing less survivable cancers such as Hepatobiliary pancreatic and lung cancers."