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Detecting cancer: why advances in early diagnosis could mark a turning point
Finding cancer early has a huge impact on treatment and survival rates, yet this area has traditionally received far less funding than others. That is changing at last, with increased investment bringing remarkable innovation
Nobody likes to think they may have a serious illness, so it can be tempting to dismiss potentially concerning symptoms as nothing to worry about. But when it comes to cancer, the statistics are stark: if detected early, many types of cancer are easier to treat and people have a higher chance of surviving them.
Before the pandemic, about half of cancers in England were picked up early, helped by national screening programmes for breast, cervical and bowel cancer. But this figure, says Dr David Crosby, head of prevention and early detection research at Cancer Research UK (CRUK), is not where it could be, and has since been hit by the constraints of Covid. “It’s clear that the technologies and systems we currently have struggle to diagnose people with symptomatic cancers, and that’s for a range of reasons – staffing levels, capacity, and symptom awareness among both healthcare professionals and the public – and of course the impact of Covid.
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