Oncology patient outcomes in Wales have bounced back to where they stood before the health crisis, though gains made over time have ground to a halt.
Data from Public Health Wales shows the overall one-year oncology survival rate hit 75 percent for those diagnosed between 2018 and 2022, while six out of ten patients lived for five years.
Nevertheless, advances seem to have stalled, with minimal movement since the mid-2010s.
Professor Dyfed Wyn Huws, who leads the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit at Public Health Wales, stated that the recovery of one-year oncology survival to approximately 75 percent, matching pre-pandemic benchmarks, represents a positive development.
He added that although survival rates recovered in the period immediately following the pandemic, the data indicates that both one-year and five-year oncology survival figures by 2022 closely resembled those recorded around the middle of the previous decade.
The Cancer Survival in Wales, 2002-2022 report, released by Public Health Wales’ Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit, also points to an expanding disparity in five-year survival between wealthier and poorer regions.
For patients diagnosed between 2018 and 2022, a 12.2 percentage point gap existed in five-year survival between the most and least deprived areas.
This disparity has grown since the health crisis and is especially evident in bowel cancer, where advances have occurred in more affluent regions but not in areas facing greater deprivation.
Five-year survival for advanced-stage cancer varies by region: 41.4 percent in the least deprived areas compared with 31.5 percent in the most deprived.
The upheaval caused by the pandemic, including disruptions to screening services and GP referrals, may have played a role in these widening inequalities.
Mr Huws noted that identifying oncology conditions at an early stage improves the likelihood of successful treatment.
He emphasised the importance of contacting a GP immediately if someone has concerns about worrying symptoms.