Thinking positive

As someone who has had colon cancer, I read reports on survival rates with interest. Why are so many presented as the percentage of patients whose cancer returns? Last week it was stated that bowel cancer ‘can return in up to 40 per cent of patients’, which makes worrying reading. If you present it as ‘60 per cent of patients have no recurrence’, this will give a positive spin.

Audrey McIlvain, Scarborough