Pandemic may create significant cancer crisis, campaigners warn

The coronavirus pandemic could create a significant cancer crisis in Scotland which could see progress on reducing death rates stall or even reverse, campaigners have warned.

A briefing paper by Cancer Research UK raised fears diagnoses could be missed as fewer referrals for suspected cancer are being made during the Covid-19 crisis.

The charity warned coronavirus could be creating “an extremely worrying backlog of people that need to be assessed”.

It added: “We are in danger of creating another, potentially more significant, cancer crisis, particularly as diagnostic services were struggling with capacity before Covid-19.”

Screening programmes have been paused as the NHS focuses much of its efforts on tackling coronavirus.

The charity said: “Despite national guidelines stating that urgent and essential cancer treatments must continue, we do not believe this is happening consistently across Scotland,” and it called for treatment to return to pre-covid-19 levels “as soon as possible”.

Its briefing paper, prepared for Holyrood’s Cross Party Group (CPG) on Cancer, said surgery for cancer patients has been “impacted most severely” by coronavirus, stating “many patients requiring major surgery aren’t getting it”.

Clinical trials for potential new treatments have been “severely disrupted”, the report added, and it highlighted “particular concern” about the capacity of diagnostic services.

NHS statistics last year showed that over the last decade, the overall risk of dying from cancer had fallen by 10%.