Why women are far more likely than men to beat cancer: Research shows twice as many women as men are still alive at least 10 years after being diagnosed

Women are far more likely to survive cancer than men are, research shows.

Nearly twice as many women as men are still alive at least ten years after being diagnosed.

This is largely because the most common form of cancer in women – breast cancer – is easier to treat than the most common form in men, prostate cancer.

Research by Macmillan Cancer Support shows that 260,000 women are still alive ten years after their cancer diagnosis, compared with 140,000 men.

The charity says this is partly because almost 80 per cent of the 50,000 women diagnosed annually with breast cancer can expect to live at least another decade.

In contrast, just over 65 per cent of the 41,000 men diagnosed with prostate cancer will survive for this length of time.

Men are also more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer, which has only a 10 per cent survival rate.

There are nearly 23,000 new cases of cancer in men each year compared with 19,000 in women.In general, men are notoriously reluctant to see a doctor whenever they are ill.

This means that if they have cancer, they are more likely to ignore the symptoms and it may not be picked up until it has spread and is untreatable.

Ciaran Devane, of Macmillan Cancer Support said: ‘Breast cancer is the big success story of cancer. Since the 1980s, the average survival rate has been above ten years. Lots of people get it, almost exclusively women, but they will live a long time.

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‘But if you compare that with the big male cancer, prostate, survival isn’t as good.’

The findings of the study will be presented tomorrow at the National Cancer Intelligence Network conference in Brighton.

There were 288,600 new cancer diagnoses in England in 2010, the latest figures available, compared with 246,400 in 2000 and 212,700 in 1990.

MPs have previously warned that men with prostate cancer receive far worse care than women with breast cancer

But cancer survival rates have quadrupled in the past 40 years.

MPs have previously warned that men with prostate cancer receive far worse care than women with breast cancer.

A report in 2009 by the All Parliamentary Group on Cancer said that treatment for men was less prompt and they were not offered as much support.

Figures also show that while breast cancer research receives an average of £815 per case diagnosed, prostate cancer only gets £417.

Last week, Macmillan published figures showing that by 2020, one in two Britons will develop cancer at some time in their life.