Skin cancer: bleak regional figures for men

In some parts of England, skin cancer is killing one man in every three who contract it.

This is the headline finding of the regional survival figures for skin cancer revealed last week in a parliamentary answer.

More women than men get skin cancer. In the period 1999-2003, 17,005 women got the disease compared to 13,196 men. But while 89.4% of women were still alive five years later, only 80.4% of men were.

The regional figures which cover an older period (up to 1995) paint an even bleaker picture for men. Men in the North and West had just a 63% chance of surviving five years - in other words, more than one in three died of this usually treatable cancer. Men in the Trent, North Thames and South Thames regional health authorities had just a 66% sruvival rate. Women in all regions had survival rates of at least 81%.

'This is dreadful example of the impact of social class on gender inequalities in health,' said MHF president Dr Ian Banks.

• Details of the parliamentary question asked by the Labour MP for Walsall South Bruce George are here.
• The full stats are here.