Cancer has overtaken the coronavirus as the leading cause of death in the UK as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to cause further delays to treatment.
Experts have now warned that the country needs an emergency national response similar to that of the pandemic in order to beat the backlog.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) yesterday revealed that just one in five deaths in the week ending May 22 had been due to the coronavirus, while the number of excess deaths in the UK since the coronavirus outbreak began is now just under 62,000.
Earlier this week Cancer Research UK revealed that there are now 2.4 million people in the UK waiting for cancer screening, treatment or tests as a direct consequence of the disruption due to the coronavirus in the last 10 weeks alone.
Almost two million people have missed out on screening and a further 300,000 people have not been referred for testing.
The ONS data revealed that in England and Wales there had been 2,787 cancer deaths per week, with cancer having been the underlying cause of death.
In Scotland the figure was 310 and in Northern Ireland the number of people to have lost their lives was 85.
This is in comparison to deaths caused by the coronavirus, deaths involving Covid-19 in the week ending May 22 included 2,589 in England and Wales, 230 in Scotland and 53 in Northern Ireland.
Director of Policy, Campaigns and Influencing at Macmillan Cancer Support, Steven McIntosh said the figures are a “stark reminder” that cancer has not gone away during this pandemic.
“The impact of coronavirus continues to cause major delay and disruption to cancer services across the UK. It has created a ‘ticking timebomb’ of undiagnosed and untreated cancers, leaving many people with cancer living in fear.”
So far in the UK over 39,000 people have died from the coronavirus and Mr McIntosh said the pandemic has dominated every aspect of our lives but added that cancer must not be forgotten.
“Now we are over the ‘peak’ of Covid-19, all UK Governments must urgently set out exactly how they will support the NHS to rapidly restore cancer care and deal with the backlog of people waiting for treatment.”
Professor Karol Sikora, chief medical officer at Rutherford Health and former head of the WHO’s cancer programme said the UK needs to prevent a “full blown cancer crisis” from happening in the coming months.
He added that it remains a real possibility that the coronavirus will claim more lives through cancer than from the virus itself.
“This would be an unimaginable disaster. The progression of cancers during these delays will impact quality of life and long-term patient survival. Even modest delays can impact on patient survival.
RISE TO THE CHALLENGE
“The only way to prevent this is through a national effort which includes coordination from the government and collaboration from the public and independent sectors. Covid-19 showed that we are capable of rising to the challenge.
“The NHS response to the pandemic has been fantastic and ensured that we remained within capacity for ventilators and ICUs throughout the peak of the crisis. This was a stark contrast to other countries such as Italy which suffered from acute shortages”.
He said the scale of the cancer backlog means that it “requires a similar response” to that of Covid-19 and added that the UK must “rise to the challenge to ramp up screening, diagnosis and treatment”.
“It is crucial that we do not allow this backlog to feed a new cycle of delays and waiting times in cancer care that lasts for many months if not years. This would be hugely damaging for patient outcomes and will place considerable strain on cancer services for a long time.
“Cancer services can be stretched at the best of times. To overcome the current crisis we need to act quickly and collaboratively. We should utilise all capacity in the independent sector for screening, diagnosis and treatment. This should include advanced cancer treatments such as high energy proton beam therapy.”
Due to the pandemic travel restrictions are in place across the UK and many other countries, meaning that patients who would usually travel abroad for proton beam therapy have been unable to receive this.
He added that we already have such services in the private sector and said collaborations needed to be scaled up.
“We must urgently refocus our attention to cancer and especially the backlog that has already built up. Failure to do so will risk us sleepwalking straight into another health crisis”, he added.
