Brits now more likely to die from cancer than 15 years ago because of coronavirus
BRITS are now less likely to survive some major cancers than 15 years ago because of Covid-19.
Many patients have the same risk of dying from the disease as in the early 2000s, when outcomes were significantly poorer, a major analysis suggests.
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Experts warn delays in picking up and treating cases will trigger tens of thousands of extra cancer fatalities over the next year.
Three million Brits have already missed out on screening since it was, in effect, put on hold in March, meaning 7,200 early cases have not been spotted.
And worried patients with tumour symptoms are still fearful of seeing their GP while coronavirus is still a threat.
It comes after NHS cancer boss Dame Cally Palmer admitted there has been a “massive jump” in long waits for treatment.
Medics warn hitting the pause button on cancer has been catastrophic for survival outcomes, with early detection key to beating the disease.
One expert said focusing on Covid alone was “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.
Mortality from bowel tumours — the second most deadly form of the disease — is estimated to rocket by 17 per cent owing to delayed diagnosis alone.
Based on modelling in the medical journal Lancet Oncology, this would see five year survival plummet to just 51.5 per cent, similar to trends in 2003.
And breast cancer deaths are predicted to rise by ten per cent, meaning one in six patients will not live long-term.
Outcomes have not been this bad since 2005. The analysis also warns oesophageal cancers deaths will increase by six per cent over the coming years.
It would take five-year survival down to 12 per cent, similar to rates in 2006.
Lung tumour fatalities — the nation’s biggest cancer killer — are also predicted to rise by five per cent.
Researcher Prof Richard Sullivan, from the Institute of Cancer Policy at King’s College London, said the predictions were conservative.
He told The Sun: “The impact is likely to be far worse than any of our estimates as we’re only looking at diagnostic delay, not changes to treatment or admissions.
“Nobody considered the indirect effects of a massive lockdown, where you’re basically saying to patients ‘stay at home’.
“The bio-fear, which continues, is still having an effect on patients not presenting to their GPs. The risk of dying from cancer is much more serious than Covid, so if you do have symptoms come forward.
“As for the NHS, you can’t kick the can continually down the road. It’ll be between 12 and 24 months before we get NHS cancer services back to normal.
“The more delays occur, the more we regress in terms of our overall cancer outcomes.”
Health bosses say 85,000 people started treatment during the pandemic but admit the figure is about 15 per cent below normal.
NHS head Simon Stevens has urged all trusts to restore full cancer services and converted two Nightingale hospitals into testing centres.
GPs have also been told to boost referrals of suspected cases.
Case study - Beth Purvis, 41
Could op have saved my life?
FOR Beth Purvis the painful truth is she will never know if an op cancelled in the pandemic would have stopped her cancer spreading.
The 41-year-old was diagnosed with bowel cancer in October 2016.
In March, after her cancer returned, she was due to have surgery to remove a lung nodule.
The operation was scheduled for March 25, two days after coronavirus plunged the UK into lockdown.
It never went ahead and in May scans showed Beth’s cancer has now spread to her brain.
Beth, from Elsenham, Essex, told The Sun: “I’m now incurable. My husband Richard, 48, and I have always been honest with our children, Joseph, 12, and Abigail, ten.
“They know I didn’t have the surgery I should have, and they know mummy won’t get better.
“I will never know if the cancer would have gone to my brain if I’d had the surgery in March.
“It’s too late for me but not for thousands of others. We need to see cancer services up and running.”
UK cancer survival rates are already among the worst in Western Europe. Brits are a quarter more likely to be killed by the disease than people in Finland — and mortality is lower in Greece, Portugal, Spain and France.
Prof Clare Turnbull, of the Institute of Cancer Research, says the Lancet modelling suggests survival from some cancers has regressed by over a decade owing to Covid.
She said: “We know there’s a danger switching everything off with Peter, in terms of what happens to Paul. You can create a sizable, almost equivalent, problem elsewhere.”
Separate research by the Institute for Public Policy Research think-tank also warns up to a decade of cancer progress has been lost in the past six months.
Experts have already predicted the Covid crisis may result in an extra 35,000 cancer deaths over the next year.
Prof Pat Price, chairwoman of Action Radiotherapy, called on ministers to tackle the growing backlog with the “same speed, energy, and focus” deployed against the pandemic.
But data from Cancer Research UK found half of GPs were still seeing fewer patients five months into the virus outbreak.
Experts fear it will lead to a bulge in late cases, with much poorer survival rates, next year.
An NHS spokeswoman urged anyone worried about symptoms to see their GP.
Get tested
Sara Hiom - Director of early diagnosis, Cancer Research UK
IF people think that it’s safer to sit on worrying symptoms that could be cancer than to come forward and have them checked out, it is simply not true.
The No1 message is please contact your GP if you are concerned.
It is bad news to delay a patient’s cancer diagnosis because early diagnosis means a more effective treatment.
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