One in four cancer patients at risk from late diagnosis – the signs you need to know
ONE in four cancer patients experience an avoidable delay to their diagnosis, a damning study reveals.
Researchers warn they wait two months longer on average, adding to anxiety and slashing survival chances.
They blame the needless hold-ups on a mix of dithering patients, hesitant GPs, busy hospitals and a backlog of tests.
Experts at Cancer Research UK analysed data on 14,259 people diagnosed with cancer in England in one year.
They found 3,372 (24 per cent) experienced a delay that could have been avoided.
Avoidable delays
Some 13 per cent were because patients were slow to visit their family doctor with their fears.
GPs may be slow to diagnose cancer if patients have vague symptoms that may not be immediately attributable to the disease.
And people with pre-existing conditions are more likely to experience delays for the same reason.
Study leader Ruth Swann said: “Our research shows there’s a good opportunity to significantly reduce delays by cutting the time it takes for patients to have tests done.
“We need more research to develop and evaluate new diagnostic tests for patients with vague symptoms and a better way to manage them.”
Vital for survival
Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, said: “Diagnosing people at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be successful, is vital to ensure more people survive their cancer.
“Trying to find cancer in people with a range of symptoms and other conditions is very complicated.
Diagnosing people at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be successful, is vital to ensure more people survive their cancer
Sara Hiom
“And while NHS doctors and nurses are doing everything they can to see patients quickly, the NHS is experiencing a staffing crisis.
“There simply aren’t enough people in the NHS to read scans or report tests swiftly.
“Waiting for a possible cancer diagnosis is an extremely anxious time, so no one should have to wait longer than is absolutely necessary.”
Lessons should be learned
Prof Martin Marshall, Chair of the Royal College of GPs, said lessons should be learned from the study.
But he added: “GPs have to balance the risk of not referring a patient with that of over-referring, which can cause unnecessary concern for patients and risks overloading specialist services.
“It’s a decision that is exacerbated as many symptoms of cancer are vague and often likely to be other, more common conditions.”
NHS England said the figures analysed by CRUK are from 2014 and “significant improvements” in care and treatment have been made since.
A spokesman added: “The NHS carried out 2.2million checks last year, the most ever, and research released just last week shows that cancer survival is at a record high.”
Figures published last week also show a record number of patients are waiting more than two weeks for a cancer referral.
More than 363,000 people are diagnosed with cancer each year in the UK. It will increase to 500,000 by 2035 – one person every minute.
The findings are published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology.