Only one in 10 cancer patients are offered non-invasive treatments

Cancer is the UK’s biggest killer, with 166,000 cancer deaths in the UK each year.

There are around 375,000 new cancer cases in the UK annually, which is around 1,000 every day.

An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) paper released today on minimally invasive cancer treatments (MICTs) has found only 10 per cent of cancer patients are offered non-invasive treatments.

This is despite many of these treatments being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

And many doctors and patients remain in the dark about some of the newer treatments due to ‘a severe lack of education’ .

The APPG, which is made up of different political parties and peers, was formed to drive awareness of Minimally Invasive Cancer Therapies - proven cancer treatments that provide similar outcomes to cancer surgery but are more targeted and less invasive than traditional surgery.

Paul Sayer, founder of charity Prost8, which launched its ‘ONE in EIGHT’ campaign to help men with low to intermediate prostate cancer get better access to minimally invasive treatment, said: "The report has identified a culture of overtreatment even when it's not the best or safest option.

“Many treatment options are not public knowledge and medical practitioners are not given sufficient evidence to refer patients to treatments outside of their own hospitals.

“This severe lack of awareness and education can lead to unnecessarily invasive and lifestyle-impacting outcomes for patients, with a lack of available equipment further hindering this issue.”

Prostate cancer is particularly receptive to focal treatments and the lifestyle outcomes are considerably better than traditional invasive options including having little to no impact on urinary incontinence and erectile dysfunction.