Several hundred people in Yorkshire have missed potentially life-saving early cancer diagnosis because of covid, according to a Harrogate-based research charity.
Dr Kathryn Scott, chief executive of Yorkshire Cancer Research, gave the figure in an interview with the Stray Ferret.
The NHS halted screenings in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dr Scott said:
“We have lost some opportunities to find early cancers. People were also very nervous to go to the doctors. Then the people that do go have delays in diagnosis and treatment.
“The NHS tried innovative ways to get around that. But it is still a sad fact that we think several hundred people have missed out on early diagnosis in Yorkshire.”
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She added that when people miss out on early diagnosis they often have to go through more invasive treatments and have a worse chance of survival.
Dr Scott spoke to us after the publication of the charity’s annual accounts for the year ending 31 March 2020, which showed total income had increased from £12.8 million to £18.7 million.
Royalty income accounted for £12 million – up from £6.7 million – of this.
The charity, however, is expecting its next accounts to be more challenging because of covid, with fundraising income likely to be down by more than £1 million.
£8.3 million for new cancer research
To combat what Dr Scott sees as a “big hill to climb” with cancer, the charity is pumping another £8.3 million into new research.
Of this sum, £3.4 million will be used to fund research into whether chemotherapy before surgery in bowel cancer patients improves survival rates.
Other projects it funds will look into ways to use medication to slow the spread of prostate cancer, urine tests to detect bladder cancer and whether vaping products can help those with mental illness quit smoking.
How coronavirus vaccine push can help cancer research
There has been much excitement about the development of coronavirus vaccines with efficacy of up to 95%.
Dr Scott hopes the development of new technologies, such as synthetic DNA-based vaccines, could be adapted to improve cancer treatments. She said:
“One of the benefits of the way they have run the clinical trials is the new technology and the new techniques they’re using in those trials.
“It really compresses the time and so absolutely in the future, fingers crossed, we can get cancer treatments and therapies through that pipeline faster.”
Although the pandemic is likely to hit Yorkshire Cancer Research hard financially, it believes its future is bright, and that it will be able to continue with its aim of helping 2,000 more people survive cancer every year in Yorkshire.
