When suspicion of cancer, patients should begin treatment within 62 days after their GP referral. Or at least this is what the NHS target is for 85% of patients. The NHS only managed to do 83.5%, however more shocking than the percentage is the fact that this is the third quarter in a row the target … [Read more…]
The list of expensive drugs covered by the prime minister’s special fund for such life-saving drugs is said to be removing some vital cancer medicines from the selection. England’s Cancer Drugs Fund was designed by Prime Minister, David Cameron in 2010 to provide patients with access to effective treatments that were deemed too costly for … [Read more…]
The NHS has paid out to almost 700 patients in the last eight years, totalling to £45 million, all due to the hospital missing to give them a vital cancer diagnosis. Alarmingly, this totals to an average of seven people a month being misdiagnosed as being clear of cancer when in actual fact they … [Read more…]
Clinics set for Manchester and London NHS experts have revealed that proton beam therapy used to treat children with brain cancer will be available in the UK by 2018. Confirmation of the plans follows the wake of Ashya King, the five year old whose parents took him to the Czech Republic for the treatment. Dr Adrian … [Read more…]
75% of patients are diagnosed too late Leading cancer expert Prof John Field, from Liverpool University, warns that delaying national lung cancer screening could cost thousands of lives. The academic believes that plans should start now for the UK wide screening of older smokers by the end of 2016, with US data suggesting that this … [Read more…]
Cardiovascular disease causes 4 million deaths each year A study by the University of Oxford has revealed that cancer is now the biggest killer across countries in Europe, replacing cardiovascular disease as the leading cause of death. Currently four million deaths each year can be attributed to cardiovascular disease, which is nearly half of the … [Read more…]
Improvements in early detection lowers death rates Data from Cancer Research UK has revealed that the death rates of four common cancers, which account for half of all cancer deaths in the UK, have fallen by almost a third since the early 1990’s. The figures show that the combined death rates for breast, bowel, lung … [Read more…]
Record number of scans over the past year The number of people having CT scans has sharply escalated over the past year, with the total number of scans carried out estimated to hit a record five million. Experts, who are assessing the risk of scan radiation on health, revealed that the number of computerised tomography (CT) scans … [Read more…]
You are more at risk of cancer if you are overweight Scientists from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine have discovered that being overweight or obese can put you at greater risk of developing 10 of the most common forms of cancer. The experts calculated that carrying extra weight could contribute to more … [Read more…]
Cancer can’t convince smokers to kick the habit Research from the American Cancer Society and Emory University shows that approximately one in 10 cancer survivors are still smoking nine years after their diagnosis. Shockingly, the smoking rate among American cancer survivors is 9.3%, which is about half of the 18.1% rate of American adults as … [Read more…]