UK's cancer death rates drop by nearly 10 pct over 10 years

Cancer death rates in Britain have fallen by almost 10 percent over a 10-year period, according to the latest analysis released Thursday by Cancer Research UK.

The figures show that 284 out of every 100,000 people, a total of around 162,000 people in the UK, died from cancer in 2013 compared with 312 in every 100,000 a decade ago.

Men's death rates have fallen by 12 percent, meanwhile, an 8.0 percent drop could be seen in the figures for women.

The falling rates of cancer deaths is largely due to improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatments, according to Cancer Research UK.

Four cancers -- lung, bowel, breast and prostate -- caused almost half of all cancer deaths in the UK, the organization said. The combined death rate for these four cancers mirrored the overall fall, dropping by around 11 percent over the 10-year period, from 146 people per 100,000 in 2003 to 131 people per 100,000 in 2013.

But for some cancers, such as liver and pancreatic, the rates of people dying from the disease have increased over the period.

"Today, one in two of all people diagnosed with cancer survive their disease for at least 10 years. Cancer Research UK's ambition is to accelerate progress so that three in four survive cancer by 2034," said Harpal Kumar, Cancer Research UK's chief executive. Endit