The Mail on Sunday reports that The British Health Secretary has been plunged into a fresh virus row after it emerged thousands of cancer patients were being denied coronavirus-safe treatments that could save their lives. The Health Secretary was challenged to act over protests that half of England’s cancer centres were still not routinely providing advanced radiotherapy although they had the equipment to do so, despite doctors insisting it was the safest way to treat many tumours during the virus crisis.
The ‘stereotactic ablative’ technique (SABR) can spare patients dozens of exhausting hospital visits under traditional methods by delivering vital non-invasive radiotherapy in as little as three to five sessions. The therapy is a highly-targeted technique for delivering very high radiation therapy (or radiotherapy) doses targeted at various cancers, greater survival rates compared to conventional radiation therapy.
Cancer specialists and MPs are demanding an urgent meeting with Mr Hancock the Health Secretary over the NHS decision to ration the treatment – especially as many chemotherapy and surgery alternatives have been suspended during the crisis as they could leave patients vulnerable to infection.
MPs from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer have urged Mr Hancock to realise that boosting radiotherapy services would help save the lives of thousands of cancer sufferers ‘without detriment to the overall Covid-19 response’.
Stopcancer.health hopes the Health Secretary will meet MPs soonest to ensure them and cancer sufferers that the present emergency does not cause the NHS to miss cancer waiting time targets unnecessarily. Such delays will inevitably create a huge cancer treatment backlog and result in the untimely deaths of many patients who could have been treated successfully for their cancer.
Further Reading
Stanford Health Care
Targeting Cancer Australia
The potential benefits of SABR for extending the lives of cancer patients
Stopcancer.health
Help for Cancer Sufferers during UK coronavirus lockdown.
All Party Parliamentary Group on Cancer
Mail on Sunday
Keywords: SABR, cancer, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, corvid-19, coronavirus, NHS, Mail on Sunday.
Photo Credit: Targettingcancer.com.au
