Half of cancers diagnosed ‘too late to help survival’

MORE than 100,000 cancer patients a year are being diagnosed too late to give them a good chance of survival, a report warns.

A study by Cancer Research UK said Britain needed to triple the number of specialists in less than a decade.

And it suggested that without major staffing increases across the NHS, a government pledge to boost early diagnosis of cancer could not be honoured.

The study found that every year around 115,000 patients are diagnosed with stage three or four cancer in England, meaning that the disease has progressed to an advanced stage. This represents nearly half of all cancers.

The estimates follow pledges last year from Theresa May to ensure that, within a decade, three in four Britons with cancer are diagnosed at an earlier point. The new calculations show that every year, 67,000 people are not being diagnosed until they reach stage four – the most advanced stage – leaving them with fewer treatment options and less chance of survival. The charity said shortages of staff were a major contributor to late diagnosis in Britain, where survival rates lag far behind major European nations.

The charity’s experts said pledges to boost early diagnosis had increased strain on services, with rising numbers of patients being referred for checks, despite job shortages, with one in 10 posts in diagnostic services now standing vacant.

The report calls for a near tripling in oncologists – from 1,155 to 3,000 within a decade – and says the number of radiologists must also rise, increasing from 3,038 to nearly 4,800.

If bowel cancer is diagnosed at the earliest stage, more than nine in 10 people will survive, say the experts, but if it is diagnosed at the latest stage, just one in 10 patients will survive their disease for at least five years.

Emma Greenwood, the charity’s director of policy, said: “It’s unacceptable that so many people are diagnosed late. Although survival has improved, it’s not happening fast enough. More referrals to hospital mean we urgently need more staff.

“The Government’s inaction on staff shortages is crippling the NHS, failing cancer patients and the doctors and nurses who are working tirelessly to diagnose and treat them.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Cancer is a priority for this government – survival rates are at a record high and in the NHS Long Term Plan, we committed to detecting three quarters of all cancers at an early stage by 2028.”