UK elderly cancer patients disregarded: Study
A research shows that elderly cancer patients are being disregarded because of their age, as the UK survival rates in older people rank among the worst in Europe.
According to new joint research by Macmillan Cancer Support and the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN), elderly patients are “being assessed on their age alone and not their overall fitness.”
Official figures, however, show that more than 130,000 people in the UK have survived for at least 10 years after being diagnosed with cancer at 65 or over.
Moreover, the study also showed that there are over 8,000 people alive today who have survived for at least 10 years after being diagnosed at 80 or over.
The one-of-its-kind research proves that with the right treatment, people over 65 in the UK can live for years after cancer – if the UK survival rates were not so poor, the number would be even higher.
A major international study revealed that for a number of common cancers including prostate, breast, lung, stomach and kidney, the UK and Ireland have a lower five-year survival rate than the rest of Europe.
The analysis, published in the medical journal Lancet on Thursday, found that more than 11,000 lives could have been saved between 2004 and 2010 if the UK’s survival rates matched those of Sweden.
In November 2013, health watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) warned that Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) hospitals had failed to improve the quality of patients’ care in the three years since the 2009 Mid Staffordshire scandal, when it was revealed that between 400 to 1,200 patients died as a result of poor care from January 2005 to March 2009.
