Almost half as many teenagers and young adults are dying from cancer today as did in the 1970s, according to a report from Cancer Research UK.

Deaths between 2008-2010 in this age group were around 300 a year, down from 580 a year in the period 1975-1977.

The largest improvement was in those diagnosed with leukaemia with more specialised treatments believed to be behind the drop, said the report, "Cancer Statistics Report: Teenage and Young Adult Cancer."

Cancer Research UK teenage cancer expert Professor Jillian Birch said: 'We’ve made great progress in helping more teenagers and young adults survive cancer, and today over 80 per cent will beat the disease.

But there remains a problem with getting teenagers and young adults on to clinical trials - less than 20 per cent are on trials compared to around 50 to 70 per cent of children.

We need to drastically improve this so that we can develop better treatments, help more teenagers and young adults survive the disease and offer hope to patients with harder to treat cancers.