Cancer expert hails Britain's success in cutting male death rate

Britain has achieved remarkable success in bringing down male cancer deaths from the third highest in Europe to the fifth lowest, a leading interna tional expert will tell a major conference today.

Peter Boyle, of the Milan-based European Institute of Oncology, will tell an audience including the health secretary, Alan Milburn, that Britain's attempts to prevent and cure cancer have been a success story - and not the disaster painted in some quarters.

Professor Boyle will reveal that the UK is one of a handful of countries that have attained or nearly attained targets for cutting cancer deaths agreed by Europe. In 1985 an ambitious Europe-wide cancer prevention campaign was launched, called "Europe against cancer", which pledged member states to cut their death rates by 15% by 2000.

It is thought that 90,000 deaths have been prevented by the focus on tobacco control, screening, education and training, but only Austria and Finland met the 15% reduction target for both men and women.

The UK and Luxembourg achieved the target for men and only narrowly missed it for women.

The dismal picture of the UK's cancer prevention and treatment efforts is normally painted by those who rely on statistics for the numbers of cancer patients who survive for five years after diagnosis. Prof Boyle argues that those rates are out of date by the time they appear.