Detection rates have increased as a result of the screening programme. And treatments have improved enormously thanks to the success of cancer research."Professor Michel Coleman, cancer epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Med-icine, who produced the figures, said they were "exceptionally good news".The only glitch was that survival rates in younger women, under 50, were lower than in older women and improving less quickly.Professor Coleman said younger women tended to have more aggressive cancers and women aged 50 to 69, who qualified for regular breast screening, benefited from earlier diagnosis.In the early 1990s, women aged 15 to 49 and those 50 to 69 each had a 60 per cent chance of surviving 10 years.But a decade later, the two groups have diverged. New drugs such as Herceptin which have yet to be rolled out round the NHS could boost survival even further, experts said.Richard Sullivan, director of clinical programmes at Cancer Research UK, which published the figures, said: "Women diagnosed today have a much brighter future than those .. a generation ago. The causes of the increase are disputed, with some scientists claiming increased exposure to environmental chemicals may be to blame, according to a separate report by the Economic and Social Research Council published yesterday.Better survival of breast cancer is attributed to earlier diagnosis, improved treatment and increased specialisation by medical staff. The improvement, to 64 per cent today, is one of the greatest for any of the major cancers.However, the incidence of breast cancer is increasing, with 41,000 diagnosed cases a year.

The long-term survival of women with breast cancer has soared in the last decade, with almost two-thirds of newly diagnosed women now expected to live at least 20 years. Survival is improving so rapidly - by 20 per cent in the last decade - that many breast cancer patients can now look forward to a normal life span, figures show. In the early 1990s less than half of newly-diagnosed women (44 per cent) could expect to live 20 years, specialists said. Experts in particular are warning type 2 diabetes is becoming more common among pregnant women.Type 2 cases reported to the study represented 27 per cent of all cases of diabetes in pregnancy. Being overweight or obese is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.The condition disproportionately affects ethnic minority women and women from disadvantaged backgrounds. Nearly half of the type 2 cases in the study came from black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups, with women of Pakistani origin accounting for 15.7 per cent of cases.Women with type 2 were unlikely to have had pre-conception counselling, had low levels of testing of blood sugar before pregnancy and low take-up of folic acid supplements.The findings are seen as a disappointment after the 1989 St Vincent declaration, which set a five-year target to achieve similar pregnancy outcomes for women with diabetes to those without the condition.Women with diabetes can significantly reduce the risk to their babies through seeking medical help in advance of pregnancy, maintaining good control over blood sugar levels during pregnancy and taking folic acid up until the 12th week.Douglas Smallwood, of Diabetes UK, said: "We have known about the risks to babies for a long time Sadly, we are making little progress.". Research in England, Wales and Northern Ireland has also shown the babies are nearly three times more likely to die in their first month of life as babies born to women without the condition.

Twice as many babies of women with diabetes were born with major congenital malformations such as neural tube and heart defects, the Confidential Inquiry into Maternal and Child Health further showed. Of the 2,356 babies born between March 2002 and February 2003 to women with type 1 and type 2 diabetes, there were 63 stillbirths, and a further 22 babies who died before they were four weeks old. Women with diabetes also had a high rate of obstetric intervention, including a higher Caesarean rate, and a higher pre-term delivery rate than normal.The results have prompted a call for better pre-pregnancy counselling services for women with diabetes and a greater awareness of the risks of the condition.Diabetes affects about one in every 250 pregnancies. Every year there are predictions of huge deficits, but they need to be treated with caution.". Babies of women with diabetes are nearly five times as likely to be stillborn as those of women without the condition, according to a study published today. The Royal College of Nursing said that 3,000 NHS staff, including at least 1,000 nurses, could face job losses as NHS trusts face deficits set to reach