The UK Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC), of which Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is a member, is today calling on the Department of Health and NHS England to urgently tackle the ‘unacceptable’ variations in lung cancer care. Despite ‘significant’ improvements in survival and incidence rates, people with lung cancer still face huge inequalities when accessing lung cancer treatments and services – as a result of their age, socio-economic status or where they live.
“Put simply: ten years on we are not where we should be.”
“While the predicted five year survival rate of patients diagnosed in England in 2013 is now almost double (16%) what it was ten years ago (9%), UK survival rates compare poorly with other major cancers and lag seriously behind our European counterparts,” says Dr Mick Peake, clinical lead for the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN), and chair of the UKLCC’s clinical advisory group which authored the report.
Changes
According to the UKLCC’s report Ten years on in lung cancer: the changing landscape of the UK’s biggest cancer killer:-
- Five-year survival rates for breast cancer are still up to ten times higher than lung cancer five-year survival rates in England and Wales
- The proportion of people with early stage lung cancer varies from 33 to 63 per cent across England and Wales and rates for chemotherapy vary from 46 to 63 per cent
- Patients receiving active treatment under the age of 65 in England is 77 per cent, compared to 20 per cent for people over 80 – nearly four times higher
- The number of patients assigned a lung cancer clinical nurse specialist still varies significantly across England and Wales from 36 to 100 per cent
- The number of patients being diagnosed with advanced lung cancer varies from 11 to 76 per cent in England
- The number of men diagnosed with lung cancer in the UK has decreased by 11 per cent – yet increased in women by 17 per cent over the last ten years
To address these disparities and ensure delivery of the highest quality lung cancer care, the UKLCC is pressing policy makers to ensure that lung cancer is appropriately prioritised in the implementation of the new five year cancer strategy. The UKLCC wants GP contracts to prioritise early diagnosis of lung cancer. It also wants to see an increase the number of lung cancer specialist nurses; an emphasis on the benefits of a national lung cancer screening programme; and work with commissioners to ensure patients receive access to the latest molecular diagnostic tests. The re-instigation of the Be Clear on Cancer lung cancer awareness campaign is also imperative.
The outcome
“Up to 89% of lung cancer cases in the UK are preventable,” says Mr Richard Steyn, chair of the UK Lung Cancer Coalition and consultant thoracic surgeon at Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust.
“Awareness of the signs and symptoms of lung cancer is vital for early diagnosis and better outcomes. Yet in the UK, doctors diagnose many patients at a later stage than in other countries. In England, around 40% of people with lung cancer first reach specialist care through an emergency hospital admission.”
Robert Peston, BBC economics editor and political editor at ITV, whose wife died of lung cancer, said:
“Survival rates in Britain are improving, but they remain unacceptably low compared with much of the developed world. We need far more investment in research, diagnosis and awareness campaigns.”