Cancer Research UK reports that thanks to earlier detection and improved treatment, breast cancer death rates in the UK have fallen by a fifth in the last ten years.

A new report shows that until superior therapeutic treatments are developed to prevent, treat and cure cancer, the best means of reducing mortality and morbidity in a disease this complex is early detection and diagnosis.

In the major solid cancer types such as lung, breast, colon and prostate, long-term survival rates drop precipitously once metastatis has occurred.

The report shows that the case is clear for development of biomarkers for early detection and screening tests for diseases such as breast, colon, ovarian and lung cancer. In addition, diagnostic measurement of cancer disease progression is essential to successful disease management. For these reasons, development of new and effective biomarkers for cancer detection and diagnosis is central to the cancer problem.

Biomarkers are useful in following the course of cancer and evaluating which therapeutic regimes are most effective for a particular type of cancer, as well as determining long-term susceptibility to cancer or recurrence.

Cancer research Uk highlightes that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in this country. Each year, there are over 44,600 new cases in the UK. This cancer accounts for almost one in three of all cancer cases in women, and the lifetime risk for breast cancer in women is one in nine.