CANCER remains one of the biggest killers in Glasgow, despite much progress being made in recent decades.

The report that many more people are surviving the disease is very encouraging news and is testament to the skill of our medical and nursing professions, and to the development of drugs and treatment.

However, cancer in its many forms still claims the lives of far too many people, far too quickly, following diagnosis.

One of the reasons for the longer survival rates is early detection allowing for drugs and treatment to be administered when the cancer is still at an early enough stage to remove.

The message is get symptoms checked out as soon as possible and it is advice that could save your life.

However, that means being aware of what the symptoms are and of the many forms of cancer.

To be able to defeat something like cancer we need to understand it and recognise the signs when the begin to show.

Awareness campaigns are the best way to educate the population and allow us to improve even further on early detection and survival rates.

And as always prevention is better than cure, with a healthy lifestyle and diet the best defence against the biggest causes of premature death.

The message from the latest survival rates is that a cancer diagnosis is no longer a definite death sentence.

The first step is identifying symptoms and then getting them checked.