Quarter of all cancers found at late stage
pharmafile | November 15, 2010 | News story | | Cancer, England, NCIN, NHS, National Cancer Intelligence Network, brain cancer, cancer diagnosis, leukaemia
Nearly a quarter of all cancer diagnoses in England came after a patient had been admitted to hospital for emergency treatment, according to a new review.
The National Cancer Intelligence Network looked at data from diagnoses in 2007 and found 23% of cases had been detected only when the disease had progressed to a later stage, thus requiring hospital treatment.
This shot up in cases of acute leukaemia and brain cancer, where nearly half were discovered at a “critical stage”.
For almost all cancer types, one-year survival rates were much lower for patients presenting as emergencies than for those presenting via other routes.
The review suggested that those on low incomes, elderly people and the under-25s were the most likely to have their cancer diagnosed at a later stage.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK, said the late diagnosis levels were “alarmingly high”.
She said: “We hope the government will seriously consider the best way to tackle this problem in their revised cancer strategy, which is due in the coming months.”
The results cover all English patients diagnosed in 2007 with malignant cancer, excluding non-melanoma skin cancer, in situ breast and cervical cancers, and patients with multiple tumours.
The NCIN is a UK-wide initiative, working closely with cancer services in Britain to help improve standards of cancer care and clinical outcomes by improving and using the information it collects for analysis, publication and research.
Ben Adams
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