Cancer incidence in Wales is showing signs of recovery to pre-pandemic levels of detection, with notable improvements in the detection rates for bowel and female breast cancers between 2020 and 2021, fresh figures show.

In 2021, the number of new cancer cases increased by 10.2 percent compared to 2020, with a total of 19,625 cases diagnosed.

However, this figure remains 3.9 percent lower than the pre-pandemic average observed during 2018-2019.

The data reflects a mixed picture across different cancer types, with some recovering more robustly than others.

Bowel cancer diagnoses saw a 9.4 percent increase, while female breast cancer cases rose by 5.5 percent compared to the 2018-2019 average.

Lung cancer diagnoses in 2021, however were still 3.9 percent below pre-pandemic levels, and prostate cancer continues to lag significantly, with a 20.4 percent decrease in detected cases compared to 2018-2019.

Professor Dyfed Wyn Huws, Director of the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit at Public Health Wales said: "While we are heartened by the recovery in cancer incidence, particularly for bowel and female breast cancer, we recognise that more work is needed to support the full restoration of cancer detection across all cancer types.”