Elderly suffer from late cancer diagnosis
Thursday April 2nd, 2015
The over-60s are most likely to have cancer diagnosed through an emergency admission to hospital, according to figures published today.
The
figures are surprising as elderly people are more likely to undergo screening
or to have regular contact with doctors than younger patients.
Late diagnosis has been seen as one of the main causes of the UK's poor record on cancer survival.
The latest analysis involves cases of lung and bowel cancer.
The report in BMJ Open shows that 40% of patients with lung cancer and 25% of those with bowel cancer were diagnosed through emergency admission over a five year period ending in 2010.
Experts said more research is needed to find out why so many cases of cancer are diagnosed as emergencies.
The research also found that women and the poor are at an increased risk of having lung cancer diagnosed as an emergency.
Researchers analysed some 20 pieces of research involving 687,000 people with lung or bowel cancer.
Researcher Dr Liz Mitchell, of the Leeds Institute of Health Sciences, said: “It may be that some patients don’t go to their GP about early cancer symptoms - especially if they live alone - or they become ill very quickly, leading to an emergency diagnosis in hospital. But our review shows that other factors such as a person’s age and gender might also have an influence.
"Knowing more about these influences could help us to find ways of ensuring that more cancers are spotted earlier, when patients often have a better chance of survival.”
Sara Hiom, of Cancer Research UK, said it would be backing more research into the subject.
She said: “We need a better understanding of why some people are having their cancer diagnosis made via an emergency admission. This is important because we know that their survival chances are lower if people are diagnosed this way."
Risk factors for emergency presentation with lung and colorectal cancers: a systematic review. BMJ Open 2 April 2015; doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006965
Tags: Cancer | Elderly Health | Gastroenterology | Internal Medicine | Respiratory | UK News
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