Skip to main content

Together we are beating cancer

Donate now
  • Health & Medicine

Cancer is the UK public’s biggest health concern

Tim Gunn
by Tim Gunn | News

15 July 2024

0 comments 0 comments

A crowd of people looking concerned on a hot day.
I Wei Huang/Shutterstock.com

More UK adults are concerned about cancer than any other medical condition, and most people want to see a future where it can be diagnosed much earlier, according to polling commissioned by the University of Cambridge.

Thanks to decades of research into diagnosis and treatment, cancer survival in the UK has doubled over the last 50 years, but the results of the new survey show that the disease is still the defining health issue of our time.

The only undesirable future event that worried more of the 2,000 UK adults in the poll than a cancer diagnosis (chosen by 62%) was the death of a close relative (72%). Both worried more people than nuclear war, dementia, or a heart attack.

The survey, which was carried out by Public First, also highlighted the level of concern around being diagnosed with a late-stage cancer. More people (70%) were worried about the possibility of being diagnosed too late to receive treatment than anything else to do with the disease.

Similarly, when asked which transformative development they would like to see in the future, 55% of respondents chose “being able to detect and treat cancer early enough so that no-one dies of the disease”. Only eliminating poverty, which was chosen by 23% of respondents, came anywhere close.

Early diagnosis already saves lives. Because of the way cancer develops, spotting the disease early, before it grows or spreads, usually gives doctors more and better options for treating it. Almost all women diagnosed with breast cancer at the earliest stage (stage 1) survive it for five years or more, but that number falls to around 3 in 10 women when breast cancer is diagnosed at the most advanced stage (stage 4).

“Outcomes can be completely transformed – better survival and less invasive treatments – if the cancer is diagnosed early enough,” said Cancer Research UK-funded researcher Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, Director of the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge.

With Cancer Research UK support, Fitzgerald, an expert in early detection, has developed and refined a test for oesophageal cancer called the capsule sponge. The NHS is currently trialling it as a new method of finding and monitoring people with a higher risk of the disease.

If that trial is successful, Fitzgerald’s simple sponge-on-a-string test could be made available to monitor people at higher risk of oesophageal cancer in the same way mammograms are used to screen for breast cancer.

“A lot of our focus now is on understanding cancer at its very earliest stage – years before an individual will develop any symptoms,” said Fitzgerald. “That way, it may even be possible to prevent the disease in the first place, or at least catch it when it can be treated easily.”

Cancer Research UK’s Longer, Better Lives manifesto, which details the policies that could help prevent 20,000 UK cancer deaths every year by 2040, also highlights the importance of diagnosing more cancers early. Before the general election, the Labour Party’s manifesto made similar commitments to catching cancer earlier and cutting the number of lives lost to the disease. The charity is now calling on the new Labour government to follow that by setting out a dedicated cancer plan for England, with measures to reduce late-stage diagnosis of cancer and to transform and optimise cancer screening programmes.

The University of Cambridge published the results of the poll today to mark the start of a month-long focus on its cancer research in support of the new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.

“Cancer affects one in two of us and understandably induces fear in patients and their families,” said Professor Richard Gilbertson, Director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre at the University and the Research Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.

“At Cambridge we believe it’s possible to imagine a world where there is no longer a fear of cancer. It’s an ambitious goal that we – along with many other researchers around the world – are working hard to realise.”

Tell us what you think

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read our comment policy.

Tell us what you think

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Read our comment policy.