Lung cancer care
Thursday, 06 Dec 2007 11:33
Patients deserve better lung cancer care, campaigners claim
Campaigners have called for a renewed focus on improving lung cancer care after a report found that treatment is poor in some areas.
The Information Centre for Health and Social Care (IC) studied the standard of care in all Welsh trusts and 93 per cent of English trusts.
It found treatment improved during 2006 but that it still lags behind the level of care offered in other countries including the US and many European nations.
Improvements were noted in the number of people who received anti-cancer treatment after their care was analysed.
Other highlights of the study include an increase in the number of patients diagnosed through a tissue biopsy, which is seen as a good indicator of overall care quality.
However the improvement in care was not consistent throughout England and Wales, with some areas performing well and others performing poorly.
Despite the average age for lung cancer diagnosis being 71 for men and 72 for women, younger people were more likely to receive anti-cancer treatment.
And although surgery is the main curative treatment for lung cancer, the number of patients going under the knife remained at nine per cent. The study found that for most patients the disease was too advanced at presentation for surgery to be possible.
This compares to 20 per cent of lung cancer patients in the US who have surgery while the European average is 26 per cent for those aged under 70 and 14 per cent for those aged 70 and above.
IC chief executive Tim Strachan said "there is still a long way to go" before lung cancer care improves to the level seen in Europe and the US.
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