Hardev Pandha, professor of medical oncology, comments: "'The latest statistics highlight both the health consequences of increasing longevity, but also the potential dangers of waiting for screening programmes to become established. Cancer is a complex biological entity and despite enormous technological advances, few successful cancer screening strategies are proven, and most likely, due to this heterogeneity it is unlikely we will have cost effective screening for most cancers. A sharp focus on lifestyle and obvious risk factors, and an active long term working partnership with the food and alcohol industry is essential, with obvious overall health benefits for both men and women'