A drive to improve awareness of cancer symptoms and more rapid diagnosis is needed to give people with less survivable forms of the disease a “fighting chance”, a new report warns.

The Less Survivable Cancer Taskforce (LSCT) says many cases of lung, liver, stomach, pancreatic, oesophageal and brain cancer were being diagnosed at a late stage before the covid pandemic – with fewer than 16% of people surviving five years or more.

For other common cancers, the average five-year survival rate is far higher at 69%.  

With urgent referrals for cancer dropping during the crisis, there are fears closing the deadly cancer gap will prove even more difficult.

The LSCT is calling for a restart of cancer awareness campaigns and ensuring GPs are able to recognise often vague and non-specific symptoms.

Other action which could be taken include surveillance of people with liver disease for liver cancer and targeted screening for lung cancer.

Rapid diagnostic centres, which are designed to speed up cancer diagnosis by taking referrals from GPs for people with non-specific but concerning symptoms, should also be rolled out across the UK, the report says.

Anna Jewell, of the LSCT said less survivable cancers have been “left behind for far too long”.

“The time from diagnosis to death for anyone who has one of these cancers is brutally short,” she said.

“Our evidence of better outcomes for people diagnosed with more survivable cancers shows that it is possible to increase life expectancies but we urgently need a whole system approach to diagnosing the less survivable cancers earlier and faster.

“In addition to increased public awareness of symptoms, GPs need support in terms of resources and equipment as well as access to rapid diagnostic centres for their patients.

“The situation is critical. The covid-19 pandemic has put an enormous strain on our health service but we must continue to act for people affected by these devastating diseases and give them a fighting chance.

“We are urging ministers, health service leaders, researchers and healthcare professionals to work with us and our patients to make the recommendations in this report a reality.”

The LCST is aiming to double the survivability of the six cancers highlighted in the report to 28% by 2029.

One issue is that most of the general public are unaware of the signs of less survivable cancers – for example the typical symptoms of pancreatic cancer are indigestion, abdominal pain and unexplained weight loss.

The report highlights the story of Tony, a fit and healthy 64-year-old who began to suffer bad indigestion in March 2018.

He went to the GP where various investigations were carried out, but it wasn’t until October that a gastroscopy was ordered, which revealed he had stomach cancer. He died just over a year later.

His wife Gill said: “Tony’s legacy has to be the question he asked after going through all this; why do they not begin to look at the worst potential outcome and work backwards?

“They were looking for other cancers – prostate – but why did the GPs not even consider stomach cancer?”

 

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