People living in the most deprived areas of England are even less likely to survive common cancers than previously believed, new figures published by the Office for National Statistics indicate.

The largest differences between people living in deprived areas and the rest of England are in cancers of the bladder and rectum, the figures show.

Researchers from the Office for National Statistics and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine analysed data from patients who were given diagnoses of seven common cancers during 1998 to 2003. They compared cancer survival among people living in “spearhead” …