English cancer patients ‘missing out on targeted cancer therapies’

A new study has indicated that many English cancer patients may be missing out on personalised therapies that would benefit them.

The Cancer Research UK study showed estimated that more than 24,000 molecular diagnostic tests were not carried out in hospitals across England in 2014, with around 16,000 eligible lung and bowel cancer patients missing out.

In about one-quarter of these cases, the patients could have been given targeted treatments, meaning an estimated 3,500 lung and bowel cancer patients missed out on medicines that could have dramatically changed their prognosis.

The main reason for this shortfall is cost, as there is no dedicated funding available for the tests, while doctors' poor awareness of targeted treatments and testing is also a factor.

This is despite molecular diagnostic tests having been available since 2008, and the government made an as-yet unfulfilled commitment in 2011 to develop a national commissioning structure for the tests.

Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said: "Molecular diagnostic tests can help doctors to choose more tailored treatments that may improve survival for their patients, allow patients to take part in clinical trials and potentially reduce side effects from less effective treatments."