House of Commons Library – October 2023
Provides an overview of cancer statistics for England. It covers detailed information on cancer diagnoses up to 2020 and deaths up to 2021, as well as statistics on NHS screening and treatment
Category: 09 (September 2023)
Why we need to understand breast cancer risk – NIHR Collection
NIHR – October 2023
This Collection brings together insights from examples of NIHR research. Most of the research has been highlighted in accessible summaries – NIHR Alerts. The information will be useful for GPs and other healthcare professionals involved in commissioning and delivering services. Members of the public may also be interested.
Further information – Why we need to understand breast cancer risk
NICE draft guidance recognises potential of new targeted treatment for type of advanced breast cancer
NICE – 26th September 2023
NICE’s independent appraisal committee has asked the company for more information ahead of its next meeting. This includes further analyses looking at how much benefit trastuzumab brings for people’s length of life, more evidence that the benefit of treatment continues even when the disease becomes worse and more analyses looking at the outcomes that people experience on standard care given in the NHS.
An agile cancer service is vital for the future
Cancer Research – September 2023
Professor the Lord Ara Darzi is Co-Director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London and Paul Hamlyn Chair of Surgery. He is a Consultant Surgeon at Imperial College NHS Trust and the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and is one of the experts helping to shape our Manifesto for Cancer Research and Care.
Our Manifesto, which will be published in November, will set out how the next Government can transform cancer outcomes for all and how we can take action to reduce health inequalities.
Our nation is blighted by inequality.
There are vast disparities in incomes, earnings, wealth, education and life expectancy.
Ethnicity, gender and age are drivers of inequality, and so is geography.
But perhaps the greatest injustice of all are inequalities in health.
In the case of cancer, we know we are all at risk. One in two of us will be diagnosed with the disease during our lifetimes.
But cancer does not affect us equally. Research shows that people from more deprived areas are 17% less likely to survive diseases such as rectal cancer, compared to those from the least deprived areas. Similar patterns are seen with cancers of the breast, prostate, and bladder.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how people living in deprived areas, of differing ethnicities, and with existing health conditions are disproportionately affected by illness. Cancer is no different.
These inequalities do not just affect whether people survive cancer. They determine how cancer is screened, diagnosed, and treated. This is why it is so important that addressing inequalities will be embedded throughout Cancer Research UK’s Manifesto for Cancer Research and Care.
Further information – An agile cancer service is vital for the future
More people could be offered genetic testing for genes linked to ovarian cancer in new draft NICE guideline for public consultation
NICE – September 2023
Anyone can carry a gene linked to ovarian cancer, including women, men, trans and non-binary people, and can pass it on to their children.
People may not know they are at higher risk, with best estimates suggesting only around 3% of people know they have a high-risk gene.
The guideline aims to raise greater awareness and increase the availability of genetic testing, allowing people to take preventive measures such as surgery, meaning fewer people will go on to develop ovarian cancer.
People who could be carriers should be referred to genetics services for testing and offered counselling. This could include people who have had certain cancers, or if a blood relative has had breast or ovarian cancer.
NICE recommends genetics services should assess the likelihood of people carrying the genes using a recognised mathematic model such as the Manchester scoring system, or criteria based on family history, and test for 1 of 9 identified pathogenic variants. These are: BRCA1, BRCA2, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, RAD51C, RAD51D, BRIP1 and PALB2.
Women, trans men and non-binary people registered female at birth who carry 1 of the genes should be offered information and support as part of discussions about the best option for reducing their risk of developing ovarian cancer. The most effective intervention is surgery to remove the ovaries. The draft guideline recommends this should happen no earlier than age 35, or 45 depending on the type of gene that is found.
In some cases, a hysterectomy may also be considered to reduce the risk of endometrial as well as ovarian cancer.
People from Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jewish family backgrounds have a higher risk of carrying the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, with around 280,000 people from these backgrounds expected to be eligible for testing. BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are also linked to breast cancer.
People from Greenlander family backgrounds also have a higher risk of having 1 of the pathogenic variants and it is expected that fewer than 1,000 will need testing.
Further information – More people could be offered genetic testing for genes linked to ovarian cancer in new draft NICE guideline for public consultation
RCN launches new definition of nursing
RCN – September 2023
The RCN has launched its new definition of nursing to reflect the safety-critical role the nursing profession plays within health care. It has been twenty years since we last published a definition of nursing and since then, the nursing profession has changed enormously. The new definition reflects the changes and increased complexity of the profession and responsibility of registered nurses.
The definition is:
Nursing is a safety-critical profession founded on four pillars: clinical practice, education, research, and leadership.
Registered nurses use evidence-based knowledge, professional and clinical judgement to assess, plan, implement and evaluate high-quality person-centred nursing care.
The work of registered nurses consists of many specialised and complex interventions. Their vigilance is critical to the safety of people, the prevention of avoidable harm and the management of risks regardless of the location or situation.
Compassionate leadership is central to the provision and co-ordination of nursing care and informed by its values, integrity and professional knowledge. Responsibility includes leading the integration of emotional, physical, organisational, and cognitive nursing work to meet the needs of people, organisations, systems, and populations.
Registered nurses are decision makers. They use clinical judgement and problem-solving skills to manage and co-ordinate the complexity of health and social care systems to ensure people and their families are enabled to improve, maintain, or recover health by adapting, coping, and returning to live lives of the best quality or to experience a dignified death. They have high levels of autonomy within nursing and multi-professional teams, and they delegate to others in line with the NMC code.
UK-US Cancer Summit final report
MRC, Cancer Research UK, National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) – Published:14 September 2023
A UK-US scientific Cancer Summit was held virtually on 13 to 14 November 2021 and brought together world-leading UK and US researchers, clinicians, patient advocates, and industry representatives.
The summit generated ideas and opportunities which were refined through subsequent targeted engagement, towards addressing the challenge of ‘ending cancer as we know it’.
The results of this iterative consultation process have informed this report, produced jointly by the UK MRC, Cancer Research UK and the NIH NCI.
Read the Report – UK-US Cancer Summit final report
NPCA Patient Summary 2023
The National Prostate Cancer Audit – June 2023
Published in June 2023, this short report provides a patient summary of the NPCA Annual Report 2022.
The NPCA Patient Summary 2023 presents the results for men diagnosed
from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 in England and Wales in addition to the impact of COVID-19 in England during 2020 and 2021.
Testing for both HPV and p16 can give more precise prognoses in oropharyngeal (throat) cancer
NIHR – 12th September 2023
People with cancer of the oropharynx (the middle part of the throat) are normally tested for a protein called p16. New research suggests that an additional test for the human papillomavirus (HPV) could give more accurate prognoses, and influence treatment.
Oropharyngeal cancers caused by HPV tend to respond better to treatment than those whose cancer has a different cause. People are more likely to survive, and may need less intense treatment. However, testing for HPV is expensive. Therefore, people are usually tested instead for the protein p16, which increases in cancer cells when HPV is present. Most people with oropharyngeal cancer either test positive for both p16 and HPV, or negative for both.
Some people have discordant oropharyngeal cancer, which means they test positive for one but not the other (either HPV or p16). This study analysed 13 studies involving more than 7,600 people. Researchers investigated how common discordant oropharyngeal cancer is, and looked at people’s survival.
Almost 1 in 10 oropharyngeal cancers were discordant in this review. People with discordant cancer had better survival than people who tested negative for both p16 and HPV; they had worse survival than people who tested positive for both.
The researchers recommend that people with oropharyngeal cancer receive a test for HPV, along with the standard p16 test. This could improve their surgeons’ ability to estimate life expectancy, and impact treatment decisions.
Further information – Testing for both HPV and p16 can give more precise prognoses in oropharyngeal (throat) cancer
This Alert is based on: Mehanna H, von Buchwald C, and others. Prognostic implications of p16 and HPV discordance in oropharyngeal cancer (HNCIG-EPIC-OPC): a multicentre, multinational, individual patient data analysis. Lancet Oncology 2023; 24: 239 – 5.
How confident are people about accessing NHS healthcare?
Healthwatch England – September 2023
This research shows low public confidence in being able to access NHS services. It finds that a third of adults in England lack confidence that they can access timely care, including GP services, mental health support and hospital care. It also suggests that perceptions of access to NHS care is a health inequality issue, with some of the most vulnerable groups having the lowest confidence that they will get the care they need in a timely way.
Read the Research – How confident are people about accessing NHS healthcare?
Cancer Services News 