A large pilot survey of people in England who have been treated for five different cancers has found that, while many have a good quality of life, some report serious problems that can be difficult to live with.

The Department of Health said that it planned to extend the survey to other types of cancer in 2013 to help commissioners improve services.

Mike Richards, the national director for cancer, said, “By scaling these surveys up we can now potentially compare quality of life following a diagnosis of cancer for patients treated at different hospitals. This will be trialled for colorectal cancer in the …