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Excerpt
Dr Nils Wilking told journalists attending ASCO that the UK was second only to Ireland in having the highest proportion of lung cancer patients for whom no active treatments were provided. The proportion of UK patients receiving no active treatment was 48%, compared to 54% for Ireland but only 19% in The Netherlands and 20% in Poland.
‘The UK was second only to Ireland in having the highest proportion of lung cancer patients for whom no active treatments were provided’
The UK also had the lowest share of lung cancer patients in Europe undergoing surgery - 9% compared with 34% in France and 28% in Germany.
Access to radiotherapy services in the UK was also comparatively poor compared to the rest of Europe: there are 185 linear accelerators in the UK or 3.3 per million population, compared to 9.1 per million population in Denmark and 6.9 per million in France.
Not surprisingly, the UK had the poorest outcomes regarding lung cancer survival, with the lowest figures in Europe recorded for one, three and five year survival according to the GLOBOSCAN 2002 data, Dr Wilking said.
‘The level of care is at about the level available to insured inhabitants of South Africa’
One- to five-year survival is 6–7% in the UK, compared to 14–15% elsewhere in Europe.
There was a three-fold difference among different countries in usage of third-generation chemo- therapy drugs approved for lung cancer and shown to increase survival. The UK lags behind other European countries in giving patients access to these treatments.
Spending on innovative new cancer drugs per inhabitant amounted to €37 in the US, €28 in France, and €16–20 in Germany and Scandinavia, but only €12 in the UK - about one third of the US figure.
‘The level of care in the UK is at about the level available to insured inhabitants of South Africa', commented Dr Wilking.
In breast cancer, it was the same story. There is a two-fold variation among countries in uptake of new drugs, with UK patients experiencing substantial delays before being allowed access to life-extending drugs such as Herceptin, he added.
