Cancer ‘is twice as likely to return if you’re poor’

CANCER patients from poorer households are twice as likely to see the condition return, according to a study.

Experts said the cost of living crisis could leave thousands of cancer patients with worse chances of survival, as it makes it harder to afford carers, eat healthily or pay energy bills.

The University of Toronto study involved 555 people with head and neck cancer.

Two years after treatment, cancer had returned for a third of patients from households earning less than £19,000, compared with 12 per cent for those above £56,000. When the results were adjusted, it was twice as likely to recur in poorer patients.

Study author Dr Christopher Noel said the wealth disparity was ‘not only compromising their quality of life, it actually impacts their survival’.

Dr David Pinato, from Imperial College London, said: ‘I think the cost of living crisis in the UK will have an immediate impact on cancer patients.’

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the Government is ‘making progress towards ensuring better [cancer] outcomes’.

The findings were presented at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference.