Responding to the Lancet Oncology Commission

Responding to the Lancet Oncology Commission’s Delivering affordable cancer care in high-income countries, Duleep Allirajah, Policy Manager of Macmillan Cancer Support, says:

Palliative cancer care costs:

'Palliative care costs are currently higher than necessary. A key factor in the UK is the lack of 24/7 community nursing and unplanned emergency admissions. Providing this service as standard across the UK would lead to long term savings and more importantly choice of patients.

'But to call palliative care treatment ‘futile’ is extremely unsympathetic and undermines each patient’s personal experience and desire to extend their lives.'

Access to drugs:

'We recognise Dr Chalkidou concerns around drugs, but we are looking to the Government’s new value based pricing system to deliver better access to drug treatments for people affected by cancer.'

General costs of cancer care:

'Cancer care is often not very joined up so better management and coordination of care is vital, particularly at the transition points such as hospital discharge. We estimate this could release up to 10 per cent of cancer spending.[1] What’s more this would help reduce the huge £1.2 billion spent on cancer inpatients costs [2].'  

For further information, please contact:

Andrea Shufflebotham, Media & PR Officer of Macmillan Cancer Support
020 7840 4689

Notes to editors:

[2] NHS Confederation Briefing (June 2010) Coordinated cancer care: better for patients, more efficient.

About Macmillan Cancer Support:

Macmillan Cancer Support improves the lives of people affected by cancer, providing practical, medical, emotional and financial support. Working alongside people affected by cancer, Macmillan works to improve cancer care. More than one in three of us get cancer. Two million of us are living with it. If you are affected by cancer Macmillan can help.

Every day more people face the toughest fight of their lives. For cancer support every step of the way, or to find out how you can support their work, call Macmillan Cancer Support free on 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk|