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• Over the last ten years, age-standardised incidence rates of cancer in Scotland have fallen by 3% in males but increased by 9% in females.


• Cancer incidence rates and trends in incidence rates show considerable variation between different types of cancer.


• Actual numbers of cases of cancer have risen over the last decade. This is likely to be largely due to an ageing population.


• Two in five people in Scotland will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime. This includes cancers that will have no detrimental impact on life expectancy, such as indolent prostate tumours.


• It is estimated that there are 165,000 individuals who have been diagnosed with cancer over the last 20 years in Scotland and who are still alive. This is approximately 3% of the population of Scotland.

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View Cancer Incidence 2011 on the topic publications page

NHSBSP Performance Standards, at 31st March 2012:

• Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake has dropped slightly from 74.9% in 2008-11 to 74.5% in 2009-12.


• Greater Glasgow and Clyde were the only NHS Board not to meet the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.  The attendance rate for Greater Glasgow and Clyde was 70.8% in 2008-11 but dropped slightly to 69.8% in 2009-12.


• In 2011-12, all but one of the NHS Breast Screening Programme Minimum Performance Standards and all but 3 of the 13 targets were met.

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View Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2011/12 on the topic publications page

• In the five year period, 2007-2011, half of the deaths in Scotland from cancer occurred in NHS hospitals (38,157 out of 76,510).  A quarter of deaths from cancer were at home (19,457), while 18% were in hospices (13,894).


• The overall pattern described above has also been consistent over the 10 year period 2002-2011, with only a small decrease in the percentage of deaths occurring in hospital and a small increase in the percentage of deaths occurring at home.

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View Place of Death from Cancer 2011 on the topic publications page

• Over the last ten years, the overall age-standardised cancer (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers) mortality rates have fallen for both males and females.
• There is considerable variation in trends for different types of cancer. For example, the rate of female deaths due to breast cancer has decreased by over 19% over the last 10 years, while female death rates due to lung cancer have increased by 11% over the same time period.
• Although the age-standardised rate of death due to cancer has decreased, the actual number of deaths due to cancer has increased: this largely reflects an increase in older age groups within the population, and the fact that cancer is a relatively common disease among the elderly.
• Significant patterns exist when examining incidence and mortality rates by deprivation in Scotland. The most deprived areas have higher incidence and mortality rates for all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers). However, there are variations in this pattern when looking at specific types of cancer, for example malignant melanoma of the skin, which records higher incidence and mortality in the less deprived areas of Scotland.
• Details of these statistics can be found by cancer site on the Cancer website and summarised in the Cancer in Scotland Summary report.

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View Cancer Mortality 2011 on the topic publications page

• Of all eligible women, 73% took up the invitation to be screened in the previous 3.5 years.
• Just under 409,000 cervical screening tests were processed within the programme which is an increase of approximately 9% in the last 4 years since 2007-08.
• Of all tests processed, over 97% were of satisfactory quality. Of satisfactory results, 90.9% had a negative result, 7.8% had a low grade cell change and the remaining 1.3% had high grade cell changes.

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View Scottish Cervical Screening Programme Statistics 2011/12 on the topic publications page

• Overall in Scotland uptake was 54.5%, a rise of 0.8% compared with the two year period November 2008 to October 2010; and showing a steady increase since the programme started. The Healthcare Improvement Scotland (formerly known as NHS Quality Improvement Scotland) standard for Bowel Screening uptake is 60%. Uptake for females in Scotland was 57.9% and uptake for males was 51.0%.
• Uptake was lower in areas of higher deprivation. Uptake for females in the two least deprived quintiles exceeded the standard at 67.1% and 63.2% respectively. For males living in the most deprived quintile, 38.9% took up the offer of bowel screening
• 7.9% of men and 5.7% of women who had a positive bowel screening test result (and who went on for further investigations) had either polyp cancer or invasive colorectal cancer.

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View Scottish Bowel Screening Programme Statistics (Nov 2009-October 2011) on the topic publications page

• In recent years, the overall age-standardised incidence rates have fallen for males and increased for females.
• Incidence rates show considerable variation between cancers, with, for example, substantial increases in melanoma of the skin and kidney cancers (both sexes), and decreases in ovarian (females) and lung cancers (males only).


• Actual numbers of cases of cancer have risen over the last decade, largely due to an ageing population.

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View Cancer Incidence 2010 on the topic publications page

• Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
• All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.
• In 2010-11, all NHS Breast Screening Programme Minimum Performance Standards and all but 2 of the targets were met.

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View Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2010/11 on the topic publications page

• In recent years, the overall age-standardised cancer mortality rates have fallen for both males and females.
• There is considerable variation in trends for different types of cancer. For example, the rate of female deaths due to colorectal cancer has decreased 12% over the last 10 years, while female death rates due to lung cancer have increased almost 11% over the same time period.
• Although the age-standardised rate of death due to cancer has decreased, the actual number of deaths due to cancer has increased: this largely reflects an increase in older age groups within the population, and the fact that cancer is a relatively common disease among the elderly.
• Significant patterns exist when examining incidence and mortality rates by deprivation in Scotland.
• The most deprived areas have higher incidence and mortality rates for all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma skin cancers). However, there are variations in this pattern when looking at specific types of cancer, for example malignant melanoma of skin.

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View Cancer Mortality 2010 on the topic publications page

Of all eligible women, approximately 74% have taken up the invitation to screening within the last 3.5 years.

• Just over 390,000 cervical screening tests were processed within the programme which is an increase of approximately 4% in the last 3 years since 2007-08.
• Of all tests processed, just over 97% were of satisfactory quality. Of satisfactory results, 90.8% had a negative result, 7.9% had a low grade cell change and the remaining 1.3% had high grade cell changes.

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View Scottish Cervical Screening Programme Statistics 2010/11 on the topic publications page

• Overall in Scotland uptake was 53.7%, a rise of 0.7% compared with the two year period November 2007 to October 2009. The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (now known as Healthcare Improvement Scotland) standard for Bowel Screening uptake is 60%. Uptake for females in Scotland was 57.2% and uptake for males was 50.0%.
• Uptake was lower in areas of higher deprivation. Uptake for females in the two least deprived quintiles exceeded the standard at 66.6% and 62.8% respectively. Only 38.7% of males living in the most deprived quintile take up the offer of screening.
• 8.0% of men and 6.4% of women who had a positive screening test result (and who went on for further investigations) had either polyp cancer or invasive colorectal cancer.

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View Scottish Bowel Screening Programme Statistics (Nov 2008-October 2010) on the topic publications page

In recent years, the overall age-standardised incidence rates have fallen slightly for males and increased significantly for females.

• Incidence rates show considerable variation between cancers, with substantial increases in melanoma of the skin and kidney cancers (both sexes), and decreases in stomach (both sexes) and lung cancers (males only).
• Actual numbers of cases of cancer have risen over the last decade, likely to be largely due to an ageing population.
• Based on current trends, more than one in three people in Scotland will develop cancer in their lifetime.
• As at 31 December 2009, there were approximately 153,000 people in Scotland who were living with a cancer that had been diagnosed within the previous 20 years.
• Details of these statistics can be found by cancer site on the Cancer website and summarised in the Cancer in Scotland Summary report.

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View Cancer Incidence 2009 on the topic publications page

Annual update of breast screening statistics to 31st March 2010, including uptake, cancer detection rates, biopsy results and other outcomes.

NHSBSP Performance Standards, at 31st March 2010:

• Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
• All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.
• In 2009-10, all NHS Breast Screening Programme Minimum Performance Standards were met.

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View Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2009/10 on the topic publications page

• In the 30 year period 1979-2008 there were 5,267 cancers diagnosed in persons aged between 15 and 24 years, an average of 176 per year and representing less than 1% of malignant neoplasms diagnosed in a given year. Incidence has risen over that period, but has been largely stable over the last two 5 year periods with the exception of some specific types of cancer.
• The observed survival rate has increased over the same time period: for all cancers combined, survival at one year after diagnosis has increased by 11 percentage points, to approximately 94% of diagnoses, while five year survival has increased by 16 percentage points to 83%.

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View Teenage and Young Adult Cancers in Scotland on the topic publications page

• In the period 1983-2007, there were 3,235 children under the age of 15 diagnosed with some form of cancer, representing an average of 130 cases per year and less than 1% of all cancers diagnosed in Scotland each year, with a general increase over time.
• In the same period, 815 children died of cancer, with a general (but not statistically significant) decrease in mortality from childhood cancer over the time period.
• Survival from childhood cancers has generally increased over the 25 year period in all follow-up intervals analysed (1, 2, 3, 5 and 10 years after diagnosis).

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View Childhood Cancers in Scotland on the topic publications page

• In recent years, the overall age-standardised incidence rates have fallen slightly for males and increased slightly for females.
• However, the rates do show considerable variation between cancers, with substantial increases in melanoma of the skin and kidney cancers (both sexes), and decreases in stomach (both sexes) and lung cancers (males only).
• Actual numbers of cases of cancer have risen over the last decade, largely due to an ageing population.

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View Cancer Incidence (2008) on the topic publications page

• In recent years, the overall age-standardised cancer mortality rates have fallen for both males and females. However, there is considerable variation in trends for different types of cancer. For example, the rate of female deaths due to colorectal cancer has decreased 14% over the last 10 years, while female death rates due to lung cancer have increased almost 12% over the same time period.
• Although the age-standardised rate of death due to cancer has decreased, the actual number of deaths due to cancer has increased: this largely reflects an increase in older age groups within the population, and the fact that cancer is a relatively common disease among the elderly.
• Significant patterns exist when examining incidence and mortality rates by deprivation in Scotland. The most deprived areas have higher incidence and mortality rates for all cancers combined. However, there are variations in this pattern when looking at specific types of cancer, for example malignant melanoma.

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View Cancer Mortality in Scotland (2009) on the topic publications page

• Survival from cancer has, in general, increased between the periods of 1983-1987 and 2003-2007
• Taking all cancers combined, five year relative survival in the period 2003-2007 is estimated as 46% for males and 54% for females.
• This represents an increase of 18 percentage points in males and almost 15 percentage points in females when looking at all cancers combined over the study period.
• The largest absolute increases in survival are found in breast, prostate and colorectal

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View Cancer Survival in Scotland on the topic publications page

At 31st March 2010:

• Of eligible women, 73.7% had been screened in the previous 3.5 years, a rise of approximately 0.3% compared to 31st March 2009.
• In contrast to 31st March 2009, uptake rates for those women invited to attend cervical screening in the previous 3.5 years have increased in 9 out of 15 NHS Boards, including former Argyll & Clyde.
• Of those eligible women with a record of a previous cervical screening test taken within the last 3.5 years, uptake rates have improved across most five year age bands within the target age range.

In 2009 -10:

• Approximately 415,500 cervical screening tests were processed within the programme. This resulted in a decrease of almost 8% compared to 2008-09, which reported the largest number of cervical screening tests processed in any one year since 2001-02, with over 450,500 screening tests processed.
• Of all the tests processed, 97% were satisfactory. Approximately 91% of satisfactory tests had a negative result and 3.4% had some degree of pre-cancerous change.

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View Scottish Cervical Screening Programme Statistics 2009/2010 on the topic publications page

• In 2008-09, approximately 1,500 cases of screen detected breast cancer were diagnosed in women of all ages
• Looking at three year performance standard attendance figures, uptake remains similar to last year, at approximately 75%.
• All NHS Boards continued to exceed the minimum performance attendance standard of >70% of women invited during the previous three years.

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View Scottish Breast Screening Programme Statistics 2008/2009 on the topic publications page