Sports celebrities supporting CHERISH campaign
'Kicking out at Men's Cancers'

3 familiar UK sports champions have signed for CHERISH again (clockwise from top left) Sir Steve Redgrave, 5 times Olympic Gold Rowing Champion Sir Matthew Pinsent, 4 times Gold Olympic Rowing Champion, Peter Ebdon, Embassy World Snooker Champion 2002.

The incidence of cancer in UK males

One in three people will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime.
Cancer is a disease that affects mainly older people, with 64 per cent of cases occurring in those aged 65 and over.
The most common cancer in men is prostate cancer, responsible for a fifth of all new cases.
The incidence of lung cancer continues to fall as a result of the decrease in smoking among men in recent years.
Large bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in men.
Together these cancers account for over half of the newly diagnosed cancers in men.

As the average life expectancy in the UK has almost doubled since the mid nineteenth century the population at risk of cancer has grown.
It is estimated that around 1/3 of all cancers are caused by smoking and 1/3 by diet.
Current government data reports that around a quarter of adults smoke.

In 2001, more than 270,000 new cases of cancer were registered in the UK.
There are over 200 different types of cancer but the four major types, breast, lung, large bowel (colorectal) and prostate
account for over half of all cases diagnosed.
In the young, other cancers are more common.

Survival rates for men with prostate, bowel and testicular cancer have improved significantly since the 1970s.
For men diagnosed with lung cancer survival has not improved greatly.
Of the 15 most commonly diagnosed cancers in men, testicular cancer has the highest five-year relative survival at 95%
and pancreatic cancer has the lowest at 2%.

The ten most common cancers* diagnosed in the UK, males, 2001

• Prostate cancer has overtaken lung cancer to become the most commonly diagnosed cancer in UK males,
  with more than 30,000 cases diagnosed in 2001.
  Prostate cancer incidence has risen sharply with the increasingly widespread use of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing.
  Prostate cancer is the second biggest cause of death from cancer in men in the UK with 10,100 deaths each year.
  Around 85% of these deaths are in men over 70 years old.
  The mortality rate for prostate cancer peaked in the early 1990s and has now fallen to around 27 per 100,000 population at risk.
  In recent years there have been big increases in the five-year survival rates for prostate cancer.
  These improvements largely reflect an increasing number of men being diagnosed with very early stage prostate cancer
  as a result of widespread use of PSA testing.
  Most men diagnosed at a very early stage will die with prostate cancer but not from it, therefore the survival rate has increased.
  Click here to read more about Prostate Cancer

• Lung cancer is the second most common cancer, with around 23,000 cases annually.
  Lung cancer is the biggest cause of death from cancer in men in the UK with 19,800 deaths in 2003.
  Lung cancer incidence rates in males have been falling in the UK since the 1960s.
  Reflecting the fall in lung cancer incidence, the male mortality rate has fallen by 48% since the early 1970s.
  Despite this fall, lung cancer still accounts for a quarter of all cancer deaths in men
  Click here to read more about Lung Cancer

• Bowel cancer is the third most common male cancer, with more than 18,000 cases each year.
  Around 8,600 men die from bowel cancer each year in the UK .
  It accounts for around 11% of all deaths from cancer in men.
  The mortality rate for bowel cancer has been falling since the early 1990s.
  Click here to read more about Bowel Cancer

• Bladder cancer is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in the UK,
  affecting more than 10,600 individuals each year and causing around 4,900 deaths.
  It is the most frequently occurring tumour of the urinary system
  and accounts for 1 in every 20 new cases of cancer each year in the UK.
  Bladder cancer is more common in men than women, with a worldwide male:female ratio of 3:1.
  Click here to read more about Bladder Cancer
  

• Fifty years ago stomach cancer was the leading cause of cancer death in Britain.
  Since then there has been a dramatic decline in stomach cancer incidence and mortality.
  Even so, stomach cancer remains an important health problem and is the sixth most common cancer in the UK,
  responsible for 9,000 new cases each year.
  It is approximately twice as common in men than women in the UK, with a male:female incidence ratio of 2:1.
  Click here to read more about Stomach Cancer
  

• Each year in the UK more than 9,000 people are diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
  While there are roughly equal numbers of cases diagnosed in males and females,
  because there are more women than men in the population, the male age-standardised incidence rate per 100,000 population (15.1)
  is higher than the female rate (11.1).
  Click here to read more about non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
  
  
• Each year in the UK more than 7,400 people are diagnosed with oespophageal cancer.
  It is more commonly diagnosed in men and 80% of cases are diagnosed in people over 60.
  Click here to read more about Oespophageal Cancer
  
  
• Each year in the UK more than 6,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer
  and more than 3,300 people die from the disease.
  Kidney cancer accounts for just under 3% of all cancers in men
  and just under 2% of all cancers in women in the UK.
  Click here to read more about Kidney Cancer
  
  
• Leukaemia accounts for only 2% of all newly diagnosed cancers in the UK and is more common in men than women.
  Each year, there are over 6,700 new cases.
  Acute leukaemias (acute lymphoid and acute myeloid) account for less than 1% of newly diagnosed cancers in the UK.
  Each year, there are around 2600 new cases in the UK.
  The incidence of acute and chronic leukaemia is approximately equal.
  Slightly more men than women develop acute leukaemia.
  Although leukaemia is the most common form of childhood cancer, it affects many more adults than children.
  Click here to read more about Leukaemia
  
  
• Each year in the UK more than 7,400 people are diagnosed with oespophageal cancer.
  It is more commonly diagnosed in men and 80% of cases are diagnosed in people over 60.
  Click here to read more about Oespophageal Cancer
  
  
• Brain cancer is not very common, and unlike many other cancers, does not usually spread to other parts of the body
  It accounts for less than 2% of all new cancers diagnosed in the UK.
  Each year, there are 2,500 new cases of brain cancer in men, and almost 1,800 cases in women.
  Click here to read more about Brain Cancer
  
  
• Testicular cancer is a relatively rare cancer with less than 2,000 new cases registered every year in the UK.
  It is responsible for 1-2% of all male cancers.
  Testicular cancer primarily affects young men in the 20 to 44 year old age group, where it is the most common cancer.
  Testicular cancer responds particularly well to treatment, and over 9 in 10 patients are cured.
  Click here to read more about Testicular Cancer
  
  
• There are around 1,400 cases of thyroid cancer diagnosed each year in the UK.
  There are almost 3 male cases diagnosed for each female case.
  Click here to read more about Thyroid Cancer
  
  
• Cancer of the penis, also known as penile cancer, is a rare cancer.
  Each year, there are about 350 new cases in the UK.
  Of all men diagnosed with penile cancer, 4 in 5 are over 70, and almost 1 in 5 are under 40.
  Click here to read more about Penile Cancer
  
  
  Information quoted from Cancer Research UK Information Resource Centre and Cancer Research UK website