Angelina Jolie reveals she has had double mastectomy
Actress and campaigner Angelina Jolie has revealed she has undergone a preventative double mastectomy to reduce her risk of breast cancer.
Genetic profile testing to improve NHS cancer care
Knowing which genes are mutated in particular cancers could allow researchers to target those genes with specialised treatment.
Kyle admits breaking down before cancer operation
Tough TV inquisitor Jeremy Kyle admits he broke down in tears in front of doctors before his cancer surgery.
Live updates
Facing cancer costs most sufferers £570 a month
Cancer sufferers are forced to pay an average bill of £570 a month through their treatment, researchers have found.
Macmillan Cancer Support said four out of five patients face the "whopping" amount, which is comparable to a monthly mortgage payment.
Researchers at University of Bristol found the diagnosis of cancer often led to raised fuel bills, repeated travel costs for hospital appointments and a loss of income.
Gary Barlow and pals prepare for breast cancer charity drive
Dept of Health: 'Shocking and wrong' to deny treatment
A Department of Health spokeswoman said it is "shocking and wrong" to deny people treatment because of their age. They added:
Patients must receive the right treatment for their condition, and this should be determined by accurate diagnosis.
Our ambition is to be the best in Europe for cancer care and we are committed to improving survival rates, saving an additional 5,000 lives per year by 2014. To achieve this, we are investing more than #750 million over four years to improve cancer services and outcomes.
Advertisement
'Conservative approach' to older patients affects health
James Catto, a consultant urological surgeon at the University of Sheffield, said that older bladder cancer patients are not being offered treatments that would increase their chance of survival. He added:
What's very worrying is this conservative approach to treating older patients appears to be affecting the life expectancy of this group, something that doctors must work hard to combat.
Bladder cancer OAPs 'receive less curative treatments'
Older bladder cancer patients are not being given treatments that could cure their disease, experts have warned.
A new study found that more than half of patients under 60 had potentially curative treatments, but just a third of patients in their 70s, and only 12% of patients over 80 were given such procedures.
The study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, also found that patients over 70 were more likely to die of the disease than younger patients.
Authors said older patients had a higher proportion of more aggressive tumours and were less likely to receive radical treatments such as radiotherapy or surgery.
Researchers examined the records of 3,300 bladder cancer patients diagnosed in Sheffield between 1994 and 2009.
Male bowel cancer on the increase
- Bowel cancer rates among men have soared by more than a quarter in the last 35 years, Cancer Research UK have said.
- Incidence of the disease has climbed from 45 cases per 100,000 men in 1975-77 to 58 cases in 2008-10.
- Over the same time period, rates for women have increased only slightly from 35 to 37 per 100,000.
- Increasing rates of bowel cancer may be linked to obesity and diets high in red and processed meat and low in fibre.
- Another key factor is the increasing age of the population.
- But why there should be such a stark difference between men and women is still unknown.
- Bowel cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death in the UK after lung cancer.
Clock is ticking for bowel cancer patients, charity warns
We're very worried that the clock is ticking for future bowel cancer patients.
The uncertainty around how these drugs will be funded in the years to come will mean patients who could benefit from having treatment in the future, may be denied access because the money isn't there to fund it.
– Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel CancerIt is vital that the funding remains in place to ensure that bowel cancer patients will continue to get access to the drugs which their doctors say they need on the NHS.
Without it we fear patients' lives will be put at risk. We simply can't go backwards to a time when cancer patients had to beg for life-extending treatment.
Advertisement
What is the Cancer Drugs Fund?
- The Cancer Drugs Fund is money the Government has set aside to pay for cancer drugs that haven’t been approved by NICE and aren’t available within the NHS in England.
- This may be because the drugs haven’t been looked at yet or because NICE have said that they don’t work well enough or are not cost effective.
- The Government have said that the fund is worth £200 million per year.
- The Cancer Drugs Fund started at the beginning of April 2011.
- This fund is shared between the 10 Strategic Health Authorities (SHAs) in England.
- The fund is to continue until the end of March 2014.
- From 2014 the Government plan to introduce a new way of setting prices for cancer drugs which aims to make more drugs routinely available in the NHS.
Source: www.cancerresearchuk.org
Concern over bowel cancer drugs funding
As many as 6,500 bowel cancer patients could be denied access to life-extending drugs when a fund set up to pay for them ceases to exist next year, a charity has warned.
The charity Beating Bowel Cancer says it is concerned about the availability of drugs when The Cancer Drugs Fund - worth £200 million - stops in 2014.
The fund was set up for patients in England to access drugs approved by their doctors but which have not been given the go-ahead for widespread use on the NHS.
The aim of the fund was to make it easier for doctors to prescribe treatments even if they have not yet been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice).
A spokeswoman said that 6,427 patients every year could be denied access to the medicines when the cash flow dries up.
The charity is calling on ministers to create a "workable alternative" to provide the drugs to patients beyond January 2014
Little Mix and Caroline Flack team up to fight cancer
X Factor girl band Little Mix, presenter Caroline Flack and singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor have teamed up in the battle against cancer.
Read the full storyWording used by GPs can impact child cancer diagnosis
The wording used by GPs in a hospital referral letter may have a "significant" impact on the time it takes to diagnose a child with cancer, new research suggests.
If a GP uses the term "cancer" rather than "serious illness" children are likely to be diagnosed more quickly, according to the study, published in the British Journal of Cancer.
And if a general practitioner interprets symptoms as indicating "alarm" or "serious illness", the diagnosis will be speedier than if they interpret the symptoms as "vague".
The authors, who examined questionnaires completed by 377 parents of children with cancer and 315 GPs in Denmark, found that for leukaemia - the most common childhood cancer - reference in the GP notes to fatigue, anaemia or bruising was associated with a shorter time to diagnosis.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK's director of early diagnosis, added: "This study provides evidence that when GPs suspect cancer and say so explicitly in referral letters their concerns can contribute to a faster diagnosis.
"Importantly, this research identifies key symptoms, which, when mentioned, speed up the crucial specialist investigations needed for a diagnosis of childhood cancer. The challenge is to accelerate diagnosis when the symptoms are less specific."
Today's top stories
