'Silver tsunami' of older cancer patients to hit NHS trends now
The rising ageing population will see UK cancer cases surge by a third within the next two decades.
Deaths are expected to rise by a quarter with six in 10 of those diagnoses in people over the age of 70 — up a fifth on current levels.
A meeting of 40,000 cancer experts this weekend warned health systems are woefully underprepared for the trend, which is mirrored globally.
They urged ministers to act now to tackle the shortage of cancer specialists coming down the line or said needless lives will be lost to the disease.
The situation is further complicated by older patients typically have multiple health issues and require more complex care, they said.
Latest NHS data on cancer waiting times showed the 62-day cancer backlog has fallen for the first time since before the pandemic. But almost 6,000 patients did not start treatment within two months of an urgent referral from their GP. It means only 63 per cent of cancer patients in total were seen within the two month target. NHS guidelines state 85 per cent of cancer patients should be seen within this timeframe but this figure has not been met since December 2015
Dr Andrew Chapman, a leading geriatric cancer specialist from Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, said without urgent action, older patients 'are going to get suboptimal care.' He said treatment of pensioners was often 'nihilistic' and told health leaders to ensure that 'ageism is not acceptable'.
Speaking at the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago, he said: 'The point behind the silver oncologic tsunami is that as the population expands and the incidence goes way up, are we really prepared to deal with those needs? I think globally, we're not.' He added: 'Sometimes there's a nihilism - "if you're older we're not going to bother" — which is horrible.
'Age is not that relevant. The point is how physically fit you are and not everybody the same age is the same level of fitness. So that's not fair...'
He said health services needed to train more people to cope with the demands of older patients, which are typically very different to the young.
Treatment should be based around the wants of the individual patients rather than adopting a universal approach.
'It needs to be a shared discussion to say, "These are really what my goals are, this is what I'm trying to achieve",' he said.
'Most of the time, older adults care more about maintaining their function than they necessarily care about the cancer. They want to go to weddings, they want to see their grandkids, they want to play golf.
'If you're going to give somebody treatment that's going to take that away, they may not want it.
'It's much different than somebody who's 45 who wants to live for another 40 years. It's a different game.'
Speaking alongside him, Dr Tina Hsu of The Ottawa Hospital in
