LONDON (Reuters) - Cancer death rates are falling in Britain but the chances of surviving the disease are still worse than the European average and there has been little progress in closing the gap, according to a report on cancer on Wednesday.

England spends 5.6 percent of its public healthcare budget on cancer, compared to 7.7 percent in France, 9.2 percent in the United States and 9.6 percent in Germany, the report by the London-based think-tank the Policy Exchange said, and the cancer death rate is about six percent higher than the European average.

It also found that spending on cancer medicines in England — whose health figures are monitored separately from other parts of Britain — is around 60 percent of that in other advanced European countries.

"Over the next ten years, tens of thousands of lives could be saved by improving cancer care to levels on a par with the best European countries," said Henry Featherstone, head of Policy Exchange's health unit and author of the report.

He said that with earlier diagnosis and better targeting of resources towards older people and communities most at risk, authorities could make significant reductions in death rates, saving billions of pounds and averting the suffering caused to thousands of patients and families.

The report, found the current cost of cancer is just over £18 billion a year in England and could rise to as much as £25 billion in the next decade.