Gordon Banks

Gordon Banks MP showed his support for efforts to beat cancer at a major Cancer Research UK event on cancer treatment in Parliament.

During the 14^th July briefing, the Ochil & South Perthshire MP heard about the different approaches used to treat cancer patients in the UK and was taken through a range of treatment pathways that a patient may follow after being diagnosed with the disease.

He heard about the importance of diagnosing and treating cancer early and the need for patients to have timely access to world-class treatment.

Gordon Banks also learnt about how people affected by cancer can find reliable, easy to understand information from Cancer Research UK on their patient information website, CancerHelp UK (www.cancerhelp.org.uk). If people in Ochil & South Perthshire have concerns about cancer they can call the Cancer Research UK’s information nurses on freephone 0808 800 4040 9am until 5pm Monday to Friday.  They can also visit Cancer Research UK’s patient forum, Cancer Chat (www.cancerchat.org.uk) where they can share information and experiences with other people affected by cancer.

Gordon Banks MP said: “Detecting cancers early is absolutely vital. If people know more about the signs and symptoms of cancers and talk about this with friends and family, we could improve early diagnosis”.

“When cancer is diagnosed early, it is much easier to treat successfully. We must ensure that there is access to existing and new ways of diagnosing cancer as soon as possible so that patients are given the best and most effective treatment.”

 “People with the same cancer, at the same stage of development, often do not receive the same type of treatment. It is of the upmost importance that patients have timely access to treatments. Although the UK invests far more in cancer research than any other country in Europe, it is often much slower to take up the fruits of this research.”

About cancer treatment:

Surgery

Surgery cures more patients than any other type of treatment. Advances in surgical techniques mean that the quality of cancer surgery has improved, with more operations being carried out by specialist surgeons with expertise in particular procedures. However, research has shown that inequalities in access to the most up-to-date cancer surgery exist across the country.

Radiotherapy

Four in ten people who beat cancer have received radiotherapy as part of their treatment.

Radiotherapy services in the UK lag some years behind those in other comparable countries. Shortages in workforce and service capacity means that we are particularly slow at rolling out new radiotherapy techniques, such as IMRT and IGRT. It is estimated that around 30 per cent of cancer patients could benefit from IMRT—currently between two and seven per cent of patients actually received this treatment.

Chemotherapy

The chemotherapy drug budget constitutes only a small part of the overall cancer budget, accounting for 18% of total expenditure on cancer services in England in 2006.

Overall, the use of cancer drugs in England is still lower than the European average. While direct comparisons are not always helpful, it is clear that the UK has a slower uptake, particularly of newer drugs, than our European counterparts.

Over the next four years, seven out of the top 20 medicines (by cost to the NHS) will be going off-patent. The advent of generic competition for these medicines could deliver savings to the NHS of £2.9 billion – more than a quarter of the NHS’s annual medicines bill.