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Open AccessJournal ArticleDOI

Differences in cancer awareness and beliefs between Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK (the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership): do they contribute to differences in cancer survival?

TLDR
The UK had low awareness of age-related risk and the highest perceived barriers to symptomatic presentation, but symptom awareness in the UK did not differ from other countries, which suggests that other factors must be involved in explaining Denmark's poor survival rates.
Abstract
Background: There are wide international differences in 1-year cancer survival. The UK and Denmark perform poorly compared with other high-income countries with similar health care systems: Australia, Canada and Sweden have good cancer survival rates, Norway intermediate survival rates. The objective of this study was to examine the pattern of differences in cancer awareness and beliefs across these countries to identify where these might contribute to the pattern of survival. Methods: We carried out a population-based telephone interview survey of 19 079 men and women aged greater than or equal to50 years in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and the UK using the Awareness and Beliefs about Cancer measure. Results: Awareness that the risk of cancer increased with age was lower in the UK (14%), Canada (13%) and Australia (16%) but was higher in Denmark (25%), Norway (29%) and Sweden (38%). Symptom awareness was no lower in the UK and Denmark than other countries. Perceived barriers to symptomatic presentation were highest in the UK, in particular being worried about wasting the doctor's time (UK 34%; Canada 21%; Australia 14%; Denmark 12%; Norway 11%; Sweden 9%). Conclusion: The UK had low awareness of age-related risk and the highest perceived barriers to symptomatic presentation, but symptom awareness in the UK did not differ from other countries. Denmark had higher awareness of age-related risk and few perceived barriers to symptomatic presentation. This suggests that other factors must be involved in explaining Denmark's poor survival rates. In the UK, interventions that address barriers to prompt presentation in primary care should be developed and evaluated.

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Progress in cancer survival, mortality, and incidence in seven high-income countries 1995–2014 (ICBP SURVMARK-2): a population-based study

TL;DR: Progress in cancer control over the study period was evident for stomach, colon, lung (in males), and ovarian cancer, and the impact of comorbidity are likely the main determinants of patient outcomes.
Journal ArticleDOI

The expanding role of primary care in cancer control

TL;DR: This Commission considers how this expanding role for primary care can work for cancer control, which has long been dominated by highly technical interventions centred on treatment, and in which the contribution of primary care has been largely perceived as marginal.
Journal ArticleDOI

Challenges to effective cancer control in China, India, and Russia

TL;DR: The overall state of health and cancer control in each country is described and additional specific issues for consideration are described: for China, access to care, contamination of the environment, and cancer fatalism and traditional medicine; for India, affordability of care, provision of adequate health personnel, and sociocultural barriers to cancer control.

Achieving world-class cancer outcomes: a strategy for England 2015-2020

TL;DR: The Independent Cancer Taskforce has published Achieving world-class cancer outcomes: a strategy for England 2015-2020, which sets out recommendations for a new cancer strategy forEngland.
References
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Book ChapterDOI

International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED 1997

Scientific
TL;DR: The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was designed by UNESCO in the early 1970s to serve as an instrument suitable for assembling, compiling and presenting statistics of education both within individual countries and internationally as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

Bootstrap confidence intervals : when, which, what? A practical guide for medical statisticians

TL;DR: This article reviews the common algorithms for resampling and methods for constructing bootstrap confidence intervals, together with some less well known ones, highlighting their strengths and weaknesses.
Journal ArticleDOI

Influence of delay on survival in patients with breast cancer: a systematic review

TL;DR: Delays of 3-6 months are associated with lower survival and efforts should be made to keep delays by patients and providers to a minimum, and longer delays were associated with more advanced stage.
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