Cancer patients miss out on radiotherapy

THOUSANDS of cancer patients a year could be missing out on vital radiotherapy, says a report that also reveals widespread use of ageing machinery.

An All-party Parliamentary Group on Radiotherapy blamed staff shortages as well as “perverse” financial incentives on the shortfall. But NHS England has hotly contested the report’s figure of 20,000 patients annually, claiming it has spent £130million on new hardware.

The group cited evidence suggesting four in 10 NHS trusts that provide radiotherapy are using machines more than 10 years old.

It singled out for criticism the provision of an advanced treatment known as stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy, available in only 25 of the 52 radiotherapy centres in England, despite this being the standard recommended treatment for some forms of lung cancer.

Health leaders say those who need the specialist treatment – usually patients who cannot undergo surgery – are being treated but conceded many had to travel significant distances. “The further patients live from radiotherapy centres, the less likely they are to access radiotherapy,” the report said, adding that “travel times of 45 minutes or greater remain a considerable barrier to increasing access to radiotherapy”.

Because of the “uneven” distribution of radiotherapy centres, access in England varies “from 25 to 49 per cent of cancer patients, depending on the region”, the report said.

Estimates by international experts say 53 to 54 per cent of cancer patients need radiotherapy, indicating a significant shortfall in England. An NHS spokesman said: “It is completely wrong to suggest that patients are missing out on radiotherapy based on data from 2015 which is not reliable and ignores the fact that since then, the NHS has invested £130 million in radiotherapy machines.

Decisions on who receives the right treatment are difficult, which is why they are made by clinical experts. The NHS does fund advanced radiotherapy for lung cancer in 25 specialist centres for patients where it is clinically appropriate.”