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Elderly cancer patients are being denied potentially life-saving treatments on the NHS, a major study warns today.
Cancer survival in Britain lags behind similar countries because patients are less likely to receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy, according to the first research carried out on three continents.
The treatment lottery was particularly stark among older patients, with fewer than three in 100 patients over 85 receiving chemotherapy, 20 times fewer than those aged 65 to 74.
Last night, critics described it as “blatant ageism” and accused the NHS of “excluding” this generation from life-saving treatments.
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Anne Shaw (pictured with husband Louis) won a six-figure payout after NHS doctors missed her cancer and dismissed her concerns for two years.
The research was conducted by the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership and is the first to examine treatment differences for eight types of cancer across three continents. The graph shows the average use of radiotherapy
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While the level of progress in cancer survival for some forms of the disease has been rapid, such as breast and prostate cancer, others, such as lung and pancreas, have only improved at a snail’s pace.
A 68-year-old woman affected by cancer has months to live after NHS doctors missed a 3cm tumor clearly visible on scan.
A woman has just months to live after doctors missed a golf ball-sized tumor clearly visible on a scan and then dismissed her concerns for two years as the cancer spread.
In the previous two decades, Anne Shaw, 68, had been successfully treated for breast and ovarian cancer, putting her at higher risk of developing cancer again.
But doctors at St James’s University Hospital in Leeds failed to detect a 3.3cm tumor on her ovary during a routine scan in the summer of 2019.
And then they didn’t take her seriously when she returned to the hospital in February 2020 complaining of ovarian cancer symptoms and raising concerns that it might have returned.
“The registrar I saw had clearly not read my medical records,” Anne said. “He touched my stomach area briefly and he told me it was fine, despite what I was telling him about my story.”
It wasn’t until she saw her GP again in September 2021 that she was rushed to a cancer specialist and was finally diagnosed with cancer that fall. By that time, it had spread to much of her intestine.
University College London examined data from 780,000 people diagnosed with eight types of cancer in Australia, Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom. In addition to stark variations in treatment, British patients had some of the longest waits to start receiving cancer treatment, typically waiting 81 days in Labour-governed Wales.
Experts said lower treatment rates, along with delays in diagnosis and treatment, were the “missing piece of the puzzle” to explain the stagnation of cancer care in the country.
Samantha Harrison, from Cancer Research UK, said: “What we can now say is that treatment is clearly playing a role in the survival differences.
‘Countries that achieve better results tend to use treatments more and more quickly. The use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is lower in this country, particularly in older patients, and this is affecting survival.’
Researchers from the International Cancer Benchmarking Association analyzed cases of esophageal, stomach, intestinal, liver, pancreas, lung and ovarian cancer diagnosed between 2012 and 2017.
They found that people aged 85 and older were three times less likely to receive radiation therapy than those aged 64 to 74. Only 2 per cent of UK patients aged 85 and older received chemotherapy, compared with 8 per cent in Australia and 14 per cent in Ontario. Canada.
Caroline Abrahams, director of Age UK, said it showed that older people were prone to “unequal treatment” within the NHS. She added: “While it is true that older people are more likely to live with multiple diseases, that alone is not a valid reason to exclude them.” With the right support and clinical expertise, many older people can and would choose to continue to benefit from cancer treatment.’
Dennis Reed, of over-60s campaign group Silver Voices, said: ‘The NHS demonstrates time and time again that it is systematically ageist. The older you get, the less likely you are to be diagnosed in time, and even then your chances of medical or surgical intervention are much lower.’
Compared with the four comparable countries, the United Kingdom was less likely to use chemotherapy for all cancers analyzed, according to findings published in Lancet Oncology.
An NHS spokesperson said: “More people than ever are being diagnosed with cancer at an early stage and more treatment options are available.”