CANCER specialists in Glasgow are experiencing a surge in new cases and have said it is “inevitable” that doctors are seeing more patients with advanced and harder to treat disease because of delays in diagnosis caused by the pandemic.
While the Scottish Government stressed repeatedly in public messages that anyone with cancer symptoms should seek help, Dr Rob Jones, Professor of Clinical Cancer Research at Glasgow’s Beatson centre, said delays had happened “all the way through the pathway” from initial contact with GPs to further investigation by clinical specialists.
The cancer specialist, who splits his time between research and patient consultations, said the majority of appointments were also still being carried out by telephone or video and described the challenges of assessing patients remotely.
READ MORE: 'Cancer alone' does not cause increased risk from Covid, study finds
He said the majority of Scottish cancer trials halted during the pandemic had resumed but suggested some patients might miss out on opportunities because trials “may be given less prominence” in a remote consultation because of the need to simplify the process.
He said some also trials will also require patients to have additional procedures in a clinical setting before they can be enrolled.
The Scottish Government said the NHS had remained open for emergencies and urgent cancer care and a cancer recovery plan is due to be published shortly.
Cancer Research has warned it may be forced to cut research funding by £150 million a year without support from the UK Government.
Mr Jones said: “We saw far fewer newer referrals during the heat of the pandemic.
“We are now seeing a surge in patients and by default some of those patients will have more advanced disease – it’s inevitable if you delay presentation. I’ve not seen any statistics yet but it must be happening.
“You can’t really point the finger at anyone. The delays are not just about people being seen in hospitals, it’s delays in the ways people presented to their GPs, people were reluctant to trouble them. The delays are all the way through the pathway.
Where the challenge lies is actually in healthcare.
"We are doing most of our consultations remotely, by telephone and video whereas previously it would have been face to face.
“There is a desire to simplify consultations so the trial option may be given less prominence. Trials often involve additional procedures which require the patient to attend hospital.
“It actually becomes quite hard to enrol patients into trials if they are not in the building, for a whole variety of reasons.
“The bureaucratic barrier is no longer there so legally the patient can enter the trial but we are not seeing the same numbers, partly because they are reluctant to bring patients up to hospital, partly because patients are reluctant to come into hospitals.”
READ MORE: Cervical cancer treatment hopes as Scottish trials resume at Glasgow centre
Cancer Research has said major funding losses caused by the pandemic are likely to “severely impact” the ambition of improving cancer survival to three in four by 2034, while lab closures have already had an impact on outcomes.
The suspension of most trials meant that in some cases patients were left with no more treatment options, said the cancer specialist.
He said: “For some patients where the trial was the only treatment option, those were the trials we tried to keep open but for some patients their treatment options were more limited and in some cases, it meant they no longer had any options.
"Most of the trials we were doing before coronavirus have now re-opened apart from those where there is a very specific risk with the virus.”
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We recognise the impact the pandemic has had on those diagnosed with cancer during this time and throughout this pandemic NHS Scotland has remained open, continuing to provide emergency and urgent cancer treatment as well as maintaining Covid-19 capacity and resilience.
"We are establishing a Cancer Clinical Trials Subgroup as part of our recovery of cancer services.
“We are also in the process of developing a new cancer recovery plan, to be published shortly, which will ensure patients have access to the best possible treatment and care, including through new Early Diagnostic Centres where patients can have multiple diagnostic tests at one appointment.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel