{"id":27155,"date":"2021-06-15T07:23:26","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T07:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/?p=23216"},"modified":"2024-11-03T15:14:53","modified_gmt":"2024-11-03T15:14:53","slug":"fears-breast-cancer-progress-could-stall-due-to-covid-19-backlog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/fears-breast-cancer-progress-could-stall-due-to-covid-19-backlog\/","title":{"rendered":"Fears breast cancer progress could stall due to COVID-19 backlog"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Human<\/div>\n

Around 10,600 fewer breast cancer patients have started treatment in the last year in England.<\/p>\n

Breast cancer deaths reached an all-time low before the pandemic, but experts fear these new stats show that this hard-won progress could slow.<\/p>\n

The charity estimates around 38,000 fewer people started treatment for all cancer types in England. And breast cancer represents more than a quarter of these \u2018missing cancers\u2019 during the pandemic \u2013 almost double what might be expected.<\/p>\n

These are most likely people who have cancer but haven\u2019t been diagnosed yet.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Considering the huge disruption to cancer services, sadly, these figures are not surprising.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2013 Professor Charles Swanton, Cancer Research UK\u2019s chief clinician<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Impact on screening<\/h2>\n

The majority of these \u2018missing\u2019 breast cancers are early stage disease, based on provisional data from Public Health England\u2019s Rapid Cancer Registration data. Of the breast cancers with a known stage that are missing, almost 95% (93%) were early stage (stage 1 and 2), which are usually more treatable.<\/p>\n

These are likely to be cancers that haven\u2019t been picked up in breast screening, which was effectively paused for several months and only started sending out routine invitations again after the first wave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing the impact of effectively pausing breast screening which detects almost a third of breast cancer cases,\u201d said Swanton.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s important to remember that cancer screening is for people without symptoms, so it\u2019s vital that if people notice anything usual for them, please don\u2019t wait for screening \u2013 get in touch with your GP. In most cases it won\u2019t be cancer, but if it is, catching it early gives the best chance of survival.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many people also stayed at home, putting off seeking help for symptoms during the peaks of the pandemic<\/a>, for fear of catching COVID-19 or not wanting to overwhelm the NHS.<\/p>\n

Risking vital progress<\/h2>\n

The charity fears that progress in reducing breast cancer deaths, which had made huge strides in the last decade, could slow.<\/p>\n

Since records began in the 70s, death rates for breast cancer have fallen by almost 40%. This progress is thanks to huge developments in understanding breast cancer and its treatment.<\/p>\n

From Cancer Research UK scientists laying the groundwork for the drug Herceptin<\/a>, to the discovery of the BRCA1<\/a> and BRCA2 genes<\/a>, to the development of a new family<\/a> of targeted drugs known as PARP inhibitors through Cancer Research UK funded studies, research has played a large role.<\/p>\n

But this progress is in jeopardy. It\u2019s important that women come forward with symptoms, and consider screening when invited, but the NHS also needs the capacity to treat these women when they do finally enter the system.<\/p>\n

Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK\u2019s chief executive, said: \u201cScience is the route to beating cancer and from cell biology in the lab, to patient trials in hospitals, Cancer Research UK has helped to reduce breast cancer deaths. But these figures are worrying, and we could see progress slow over the coming years as the true effect of the pandemic is revealed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NHS is showing signs of recovery, but a huge effort is still needed to clear the cancer backlog as quickly as possible to help avoid preventable cancer deaths as a consequence of the pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell added that Government must make sure there is enough funding for staff, diagnostic equipment and the research needed to improve cancer care across the UK in the long term, so \u201ccancer patients are given the best chance of surviving their disease\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was such an emotionally charged time\u201d<\/h2>\n
Charly and her daughter. <\/p>

” data-medium-file=”https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero-300×168.jpg” data-large-file=”https:\/\/news.cancerresearchuk.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero.jpg” loading=”lazy” class=”size-full wp-image-17622″ src=”https:\/\/34p2k13bwwzx12bgy13rwq8p-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero.jpg” alt=”Charly and her daughter.” width=”620″ height=”348″ srcset=”https:\/\/34p2k13bwwzx12bgy13rwq8p-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero.jpg 620w, https:\/\/34p2k13bwwzx12bgy13rwq8p-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero-300×168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/34p2k13bwwzx12bgy13rwq8p-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/May-pic_hero-220×123.jpg 220w” sizes=”(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px”><\/p>

Charly, pictured with one of her daughters, was diagnosed with breast cancer during the COVID-19 outbreak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Army veteran, Charly McNelis, 37, was diagnosed with breast cancer in March 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. The mother-of-two scheduled an appointment with her GP after finding a lump, and was referred to the breast clinic. \u201cI was in a state of panic, I was reading about everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her biopsy was in early March. \u201cCOVID-19 wasn\u2019t really a concern at that point,\u201d she says, but things changed rapidly over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went back for the results on the 10th March and it was confirmed as having cancer. They said I would have chemo first, then radiotherapy and surgery.\u201d Charly asked if the treatment plan might be affected by COVID-19, but the doctors didn\u2019t know enough at that point.<\/p>\n

But the situation evolved with the outbreak, with Charly\u2019s appointment being followed by a flurry of calls. \u201cBy now the pandemic levels were rising and they explained it didn\u2019t feel safe to go down the chemotherapy route so I would have surgery first, and it should still be a lumpectomy. But by the time I went to meet the surgeon the week after, this changed to a full mastectomy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because of COVID-19, Charly\u2019s doctors changed the chemotherapy drugs to minimise infection risk. She started chemotherapy after surgery, at the beginning of May, which lasted 18 weeks in total.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s such an emotionally charged time and it\u2019s draining \u2013 COVID-19 has been a significant factor.\u201d
But while her treatment has been complicated and challenging so far, Charly is positive. \u201cI am lucky in many ways \u2013 my cancer is treatable. COVID-19 has impacted my treatment options but has not stopped it, and for that I am grateful. I got my diagnosis, and I got to have treatment, when there\u2019s people out there who haven\u2019t started treatment and are undiagnosed.\u201d<\/p>\n

More on this topic<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 10,600 fewer breast cancer patients have started treatment in the last year in England. Breast cancer deaths reached an all-time low before the pandemic, but experts fear these new stats show that this hard-won progress could slow. The charity estimates around 38,000 fewer people started treatment for all cancer types in England. And breast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5137],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27155"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43758,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27155\/revisions\/43758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ogkologos.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}