Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) — Cancer patients in the U.K. risk relapses and even death because they do not have enough access to radiation therapy, according to an article published in tomorrow’s issue of the British Medical Journal.

“Radiotherapy services in the U.K. are inferior to those in most developed countries and indeed in many poorer countries,'’ researcher David Dodwell from the Cookridge Hospital in Leeds wrote in the paper.

Patients who suffer from cervical cancer have a reduced chance of survival if they have to wait for radiation therapy, Dodwell found in a review of several medical studies. For head and neck cancer, patients who wait more than six weeks after being operated are three times as likely to have the disease reappear, he said. Breast cancer patients have their risk of the cancer returning raised by 60 percent, he found.

Despite considerable investment in machines over the past years, there is not enough staff such as radiographers, physicist and specialists in radiation dosage to treat patients, according to the article.
source: Bloomberg.com: U.K.
U.K. Cancer Patients Lack Access to Radiotherapy, Study Finds