Cancer patients in Brazil and Costa Rica have a better survival rate than in Britain CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/GETTY IMAGESBritain has failed to narrow a cancer survival gap behind the best in the world, according to a global study that suggests that thousands of lives are being lost to mediocre care. Despite improvements in survival rates over the past 15 years, British patients still die of cancer earlier than those in other rich countries that are improving just as fast, according to data on 37 million patients in 71 countries. As well as trailing the world leaders in Scandinavia, the US, Canada and Australia, for some cancers Britain is doing worse than Latin American countries such as Brazil and Costa Rica. A shortage of doctors, technology and money still hold the NHS back while repeated reorganisations mean that the health service struggles to focus…

Source: The Times January 31, 2018 00:05 UTC