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A glimmer of light in a bad week for cancer news
Cancer looms large over the collective consciousness. So much so, in fact, that for 25 percent of people in the UK, it is the thing they most fear happening, outstripping even terrorism and nuclear war in the list of people's anxieties. Also high among any person's list is the fear of cancer-related medical negligence and misdiagnosis
Unfortunately, only last week the media was awash with stories concerning the predicament of many teenagers and young adults with cancer.
During this time, three studies have come to light including one by the University of Manchester concerning the diagnosis of bone tumours all of which show that some young cancer sufferers may not be receiving the same level of attentiveness to diagnosis given to those in other age groups, something which may in some circumstances constitute medical negligence.
Tim Eden, Teenage Cancer Trust Professor of Teenage & Young Adult Cancer at the University of Manchester, UK, the man who oversaw the studies comments, "It would appear that when we compare these data with studies of children with cancer, teenagers and young adults do face greater delays in diagnosis, particularly for bone and brain tumours and Hodgkin lymphoma. In our studies the professional interval has always been longer than patient symptom interval. "There appears to be delay at primary, secondary and tertiary care levels. Interventions are being explored, both to educate the public, and young people in particular, to seek help for worrying symptoms and to empower them to push for referral to specialists."
And it is the role of GPs that has come under the spotlight following the studies, with all showing that diagnosis takes longer when visiting a GP than it does when a patient goes straight to a hospital's accident and emergency ward.
Sam Smith is a nurse consultant with Christie Hospital who presented the third study at the Teenage Cancer Trust Conference. She said, "If young people are reporting to their GP with what are recognised as being pretty classic cancer symptoms, cancer should be considered the first possibility and not the last resort.
"However, following the first onset of symptoms many young people reported numerous visits to their GP before being referred to a specialist and many waited several months for this referral to take place.
"Our findings do show that age is a factor in the number of GP visits, with the older age group reporting more visits before being referred."
All of which makes news that rates of skin cancer, or malignant melanoma, may be growing among affluent people all the more disturbing.
Proffessor Jillian Birch, also from Manchester University, comments, "We know melanoma is caused by intermittent exposure to intense sunlight and that exposure in childhood increases the risks of developing the disease up to 40 years later.
"The incidence of the disease rises with age but there is some evidence that in the over-30s it is plateauing. However, in the 15 to 29 age group it is increasing at a faster rate."
"The simple conclusion is that it is down to excess sun exposure in childhood. But in these very young people there is likely to be something else going on. We are probably looking at a combination of sun exposure and genetic susceptibility.
"It is not just Mediterranean holidays but skiing holidays, sunbeds and other elements of the affluent lifestyle. The message is sun protection. Use a sunscreen but, even more important, cover up and keep out of the midday sun."
Fortunately, in a week when peoples' fears about either cancer or medical negligence were likely to improve, there was some promising news.
A 52-year-old American man whose skin cancer had spread to both his lung and his groin was given the all-clear after being injected with billions of immune cells cloned from his own body.
Doctors believe that the treatment could be effective in curing the skin cancers of around 25 percent of all patients.
However, although he was excited by the development, Ed Yong from Cancer Research UK urged restraint for now. He said, "It's very exciting to see a cancer patient being successfully treated using immune cells cloned from his own body. While it's always good news when anyone with cancer gets the all-clear, this treatment will need to be tested in large clinical trials to work out how widely it could be used."
Cancer and exciting are words rarely paired in the same breath, and just as you must do, the medical negligence claim specialists here can only hope there is more of it to come.
