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Patients with lung cancer in Scotland continue to miss out on treatment
February 14, 2001Patients with lung cancer in Scotland are not getting the treatment they need, shows a study in Thorax. Only around four out of 10 people eligible for curative treatment received it, and those under 60 were five times more likely to be aggressively treated than patients in their seventies.
Over 4500 people are diagnosed with the disease every year in Scotland. Fewer than 5 per cent are still alive five years after diagnosis, a figure that has changed little in 25 years.
The research team looked at the outcomes of over 90 per cent of all patients diagnosed with lung cancer in Scotland in 1995. The ages of the patients ranged from 34 to 97. Almost two thirds were men, and almost half came from economically deprived areas.
Fewer than half the patients survived more than 3.5 months. Only 7 per cent were still alive three years after diagnosis. Longer survival was associated with disease that had not spread and greater affluence. It was also associated with active treatment within six months of diagnosis and the involvement of a lung cancer specialist.
Around three quarters of patients were assessed by a respiratory diseases specialist, but only just over half were actively treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation within six months. And potentially curative treatment was given to only 44 per cent of those who were eligible.
Older patients were often not treated. A patient over 80 was 33 times less likely to be treated than one under 60. Patients assessed by a lung cancer specialist were 16 times more likely to be offered curative treatment.
Standard treatment practices, such as high dose radiation and combination chemotherapy, which are common in other countries and of proven benefit in the treatment of lung cancer, were infrequently applied.
The authors conclude that the first line of attack to reduce the numbers of cases of lung cancer must be to reduce smoking. "But if patients are already destined to develop lung cancer in the first two decades of this millennium are to have a better chance of survival, a larger proportion must receive appropriate treatment" they say.
AlphaGalileo Foundation
Fewer than half the patients survived more than 3.5 months. Only 7 per cent were still alive three years after diagnosis. Longer survival was associated with disease that had not spread and greater affluence. It was also associated with active treatment within six months of diagnosis and the involvement of a lung cancer specialist.
Around three quarters of patients were assessed by a respiratory diseases specialist, but only just over half were actively treated with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation within six months. And potentially curative treatment was given to only 44 per cent of those who were eligible.
Older patients were often not treated. A patient over 80 was 33 times less likely to be treated than one under 60. Patients assessed by a lung cancer specialist were 16 times more likely to be offered curative treatment.
Standard treatment practices, such as high dose radiation and combination chemotherapy, which are common in other countries and of proven benefit in the treatment of lung cancer, were infrequently applied.
The authors conclude that the first line of attack to reduce the numbers of cases of lung cancer must be to reduce smoking. "But if patients are already destined to develop lung cancer in the first two decades of this millennium are to have a better chance of survival, a larger proportion must receive appropriate treatment" they say.
AlphaGalileo Foundation
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