Author: Andrew Gregory in Chicago

The proportion of people surviving cancer in the UK has doubled since the 1970s amid a “golden age” of progress in diagnosis and treatment, a report says.Half of those diagnosed will now survive for 10 years or more, up from 24%, according to the first study of 50 years of data on cancer mortality and cases. The rate of people dying from cancer has fallen by 23% since the 1970s, from 328 in every 100,000 people to 252.But cancer remains the UK’s biggest killer, the report by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) says.Progress has not been equal across all cancers, and women have not reaped as many benefits as men. There have been greater improvements in survival for men since the 1970s but survival remains higher in women.Sustained pressure in the NHS means patients wait too long to get diagnosed and start treatment. In England, only about half of cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, and this proportion has not improved for almost a decade, the 42-page study found.The research will be published on Tuesday, the final day of the world’s largest cancer conference, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.The CRUK chief executive, Michelle Mitchell, said: “Over the last 50 years, the proportion of the population dying from cancer has fallen by more than a fifth because of life-saving research into new ways to prevent people developing the disease, detect it earlier when they do and develop new cutting-edge treatments.“Yet cancer remains the UK’s biggest killer, causing around one in four deaths in the UK – far more than other disease groups. For people affected by cancer, this means lost time and fewer precious moments with loved ones.“As this report sets out, it is a time of both optimism and realism. We’re in a golden age for cancer research, with advances in digital, genomics, data science and AI reimagining what’s possible and bringing promise for current and future generations.“However, despite the best efforts of NHS staff, patients are waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment, and cancer survival is improving at its slowest rate in the last 50 years. This is not acceptable.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionCancer cases would increase, not decline, if trends continued, Mitchell said. “Nearly one in two people in the UK will get cancer in their lifetime and our projections suggest that the number of new cancer cases in the UK will rise by almost a third to over half a million every year by 2040.”The report highlights that more than 460 people die from cancer every day in the UK. “If we want to change that, we need bold action from the UK government,” Mitchell said.A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It’s promising to see a significant drop in cancer mortality rates, but we know there is still more work to be done. Our Plan for Change is already making an impact, with 90,000 extra patients having cancer diagnosed or ruled out since July than in the previous year – and the highest ever proportion of patients getting a diagnosis or an all-clear within four weeks in February.”

Cancer patients are snubbing proven treatments in favour of quackery such as coffee enemas and raw juice diets amid an “alarming” increase in misinformation on the web, doctors have said.Some were dying needlessly or seeing tumours spread as a result, oncologists said. They raised their concerns at the world’s largest cancer conference in Chicago, the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco).Dr Fumiko Chino, a cancer researcher and assistant professor at MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston, Texas, co-authored a paper presented in Chicago that said cancer misinformation had “acutely worsened in the past decade”.With more people being diagnosed amid a growing and ageing global population, misleading or false information about cancer had become a significant public health concern, the study said.While most people trusted doctors, the paper found, more than half of those surveyed said experts seemed to contradict one another. One in 20 had no trust in scientists to provide cancer information. “We’re losing the battle for communication. We need to regain that battlefield,” Chino said.Dr Julie Gralow, Asco’s chief medical officer, said: “Several patients of mine wanted an all-natural treatment approach after I had explained my treatment recommendations. They go online and search for something natural and they find a clinic in Mexico which promises an all natural treatment for cancer, which includes caffeine colonics, vitamin C infusions and other things.”Instead of scolding patients for shunning surgery, radiotherapy or chemotherapy, Gralow said she tried to win their trust by still offering support.“In several cases, they came back after three months and didn’t feel any better. And then they stayed in our clinic and eventually we could gently ease them into more evidence-based treatments,” she said. “A few times, they didn’t come back. And then I would learn within nine months they tragically had died.”Liz O’Riordan, a retired breast surgeon who was diagnosed with breast cancer, shares evidence-based information with her thousands of followers on social media.She said: “There is a huge amount of cancer misinformation online. Every day I get messages from scared women who want to know if they need to stop eating dairy, soy, flaxseeds. Do they need to stop wearing underwired bras, using deodorants? Is it true that juicing can cure cancer? What about miracle supplement cures like mushrooms and CBD?”O’Riordan wants more doctors to engage with patients online. “But this is hard as it takes a lot of time to script, film, edit and publish content as well as the effort needed to grow a community to get your voice heard above the noise … And when you don’t have a million followers, it’s impossible to get traction,” she said.“What we’re saying isn’t sexy or exciting – we can’t promise a cure. The drugs we give have side-effects and some people still die.”Speaking at Asco, Dr Richard Simcock, the chief medical officer of Macmillan Cancer Support, said misinformation was “very worrying” as it had “exponentially increased the problem” of misconceptions about cancer.“I have recently seen two young women who have declined all proven medical treatments for cancer and are instead pursuing unproven and radical diets, promoted on social media,” he said.“A person is perfectly entitled to decline that therapy but when they do that on the basis of information which is frankly untrue or badly interpreted, it makes me very sad. It’s clear that we have work to do to build back trust in evidence-based medicine.”Prof Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, said: “Social media can provide a supportive community for people faced with a cancer diagnosis but at the same time, we’re also seeing an alarmingly high level of misinformation on some of these platforms.“I would urge people to be sceptical of any ‘miracle cures’ you may see on social media around cancer and use trusted, credible sources like the NHS website or your care team to verify anything you are unsure of – because these fairytales aren’t just misleading, they can be harmful.”

A landmark study shows exercise can reduce the risk of cancer patients dying by more than a third.The world’s first randomised clinical trial specifically evaluated if a structured exercise regime after treatment could reduce the risk of recurrence or new cancers in patients.Hailed as game-changing by experts, the results show it could. The trial found patients had a 37% lower risk of death and a 28% lower risk of their cancer coming back or new cancers developing, compared with patients who received only health advice.Margaret Tubridy was one of 889 patients with colon cancer recruited to the trial from six countries – the UK, US, Australia, France, Canada and Israel.Originally from Northern Ireland, Tubridy, a retiree who worked as a receptionist for Mercedes Benz for 26 years, was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 64. Having previously never exercised, the grandmother of five joined the trial after her treatment.She was among 445 patients randomly assigned to participate in a structured exercise regime, seeing a personal trainer twice a month, and later once a month, for three years. The other 444 patients in the trial were given a booklet with healthy lifestyle advice.The exercise group were coached and supported to help them achieve set goals. Their weekly target was the equivalent of three to four walks of between 45 and 60 minutes, but patients could choose how to be more active. Some, for example, went kayaking or skiing.View image in fullscreenToday, Tubridy, now 69, is free of cancer, healthy and shows no signs of the disease coming back.“I wanted to take part in the trial to help other people living with cancer. I had never exercised in my life, but with the right support and encouragement I was able to walk more and more.“From there I started going to classes at the gym, and now I do weight training twice a week, pole walking, and I’m in a walking group. I had never been to a gym before, but once I was shown how to use the machines and do the exercises, I loved it.“It’s been almost five years since my cancer diagnosis and if I meet anyone, I tell them I am doing great. Taking part in the trial helped me so much. I am stronger, fitter, and my anxiety is better. I never thought at 69 years of age I would be able to do all of this. I am chuffed to bits.”Prof Vicky Coyle, the UK lead researcher for the trial and a clinical professor at Queen’s University Belfast, said: “During the trial, we supported people to reach their weekly exercise target in a way that worked for them. This could be a brisk walk for around 40 minutes every day, but some patients were also doing circuit classes, cycling, swimming and many other activities.”The results provided “clear, encouraging evidence” that exercise could reduce the risk of cancer returning, she said. “We now need to work with policymakers and healthcare providers to embed exercise into treatment plans where appropriate.”

Exercise can reduce the risk of cancer patients dying by a third, stop tumours coming back and is even more effective than drugs, according to the results of a landmark trial that could transform health guidelines worldwide.For decades, doctors have recommended adopting a healthy lifestyle to lower the risk of developing cancer. But until now there has been little evidence of the impact it could have after diagnosis, with little support for incorporating exercise into patients’ routines.Now a world-first trial involving patients from the US, UK, Australia, France, Canada and Israel has found that a structured exercise regime after treatment can dramatically reduce the risk of dying, the disease returning or a new cancer developing.The results were presented in Chicago at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (Asco) annual meeting, the world’s largest cancer conference, and published in the New England Journal of Medicine.For the first time in medical history, there was clear evidence that exercise was even better at preventing cancer recurrence and death than many of the drugs currently prescribed to patients, one of the world’s top cancer doctors said.Dr Julie Gralow, the chief medical officer of Asco, who was not involved in the decade-long study, said the quality of its findings was the “highest level of evidence” and would lead to “a major shift in understanding the importance of encouraging physical activity during and after treatment”.Patients who began a structured exercise regime with the help of a personal trainer or health coach after they completed treatment had a 37% lower risk of death and a 28% lower risk of recurrent or new cancers developing, compared with patients who received only health advice, the trial found.Asked to put the effect of exercise on cancer patients’ outcomes into context, Gralow said: “We titled [the session it was presented in] As Good as a Drug. I would have retitled it Better than a Drug, because you don’t have all the side-effects.”“It’s the same magnitude of benefit of many drugs that get approved for this kind of magnitude of benefit – 28% decreased risk of occurrence, 37% decreased risk of death. Drugs get approved for less than that, and they’re expensive and they’re toxic.”“When I started three decades ago it was still the era where we’d be gentle and say, don’t overdo yourself when you’re on chemo. We’ve reversed that,” she added. “I would say [exercise is] better than a drug.”In the trial, researchers enrolled 889 colon cancer patients between 2009 and 2023. Most (90%) had stage three disease. Patients were randomly assigned to take part in a structured exercise programme (445) or to just receive a healthy lifestyle booklet (444).Those in the exercise group worked with a personal trainer twice a month for coaching sessions and supervised exercise sessions, and later once a month, for a total of three years.The exercise group were coached and supported to help them achieve set exercise goals. Their weekly target was the equivalent of three to four walks of between 45 and 60 minutes, but patients could choose how they got more active. Some went kayaking or skiing, for instance.After five years, patients in the exercise group had a 28% lower risk of recurrent or new cancers than those in the other group. After eight years, the same patients also had a 37% lower risk of dying than those just handed the healthy lifestyle booklet.“After completing surgery and chemotherapy, about 30% of patients with high-risk stage two and stage three colon cancer will eventually experience recurrence of their disease,” said the study’s lead author, Dr Christopher Booth, of Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada. “As oncologists, one of the most common questions we get asked by patients is ‘what else can I do to improve my outcome?’“These results now provide us with a clear answer: an exercise programme that includes a personal trainer will reduce the risk of recurrent or new cancer, make you feel better and help you live longer.”Prof Charles Swanton, the chief clinician of Cancer Research UK, which funded the UK arm of the study, said: “This fascinating study captures the power of exercise to transform people’s health and boost their chances of surviving cancer after treatment. For an intervention that isn’t a drug, exercise offers remarkable benefits for patients.”For some patients, “physical activity can be a gamechanger that shifts the course of their recovery”, Swanton added. “The findings suggest that oncologists should consider recommending a structured exercise programme after surgery to improve people’s chances of survival.“But it’s important to remember that exercise isn’t the best option for everyone. My advice to cancer patients is to speak to your doctor before taking on any new physical activity.”The findings are likely to change global practice, with doctors worldwide urged to discuss exercise regimens with their patients following treatment, oncologists in Chicago said.While this study followed only colon cancer patients, Gralow said there was no reason to think the findings would not be applicable across other cancers. Booth said trials for other cancers would be needed, but added that data from this study suggested there were lower breast and prostate cancer occurrences in the exercise group.“Exercise as an intervention is a no-brainer and should be implemented broadly,” said Dr Pamela Kunz, of Yale School of Medicine.Responding to the findings, Prof Sir Stephen Powis, the national medical director of NHS England, said it was “really exciting” that tailored exercise after treatment could be “life-changing”.“These landmark findings suggest that focused steps to exercise, from walks to workouts, could help turbocharge the body’s ability to prevent cancer returning after treatment and help save more lives.“Being more active can have significant benefits in helping maintain a healthy weight, strengthen the immune system, reduce inflammation and lift mood – and it’s now really encouraging to see that exercise really could have the power to help more people survive cancer.”