According to statistics published this month, cancer waiting times have improved over the past year, irrespective of more than 100,000 additional people in England being seen by a cancer specialist and despite a general growing pressure on waiting times in the health service.

In September 2011, The Department of Health published official statistics that show a steady improvement in waiting times for cancer patient referrals and treatment. According to the report ‘Waiting Times for Suspected and Diagnosed Cancer Patients in England 2010-2011’, the NHS managed to achieve its targets for cancer referrals (2 weeks) and treatment targets (31 days and 62 days).

From April 2010 to March 2011, more than 1 million patients managed to see a cancer specialist after receiving their GP’s urgent referral, this represents an annual increase of over 100,000 patients. Compared with 2009/2010 year’s figures of 94.9%, in 2010/2011 95.5 % of patients were seen within 14 days of referral. Approximately 45,000 patients did not see a cancer specialist within 2 weeks of their GP’s referral.

This is promising news for mouth cancer patients where early diagnosis and treatment is vital as it means survival rates increase from 50 % to 90 %. Referrals within 2 weeks for suspected head and neck cancers improved to 96.3 % in 2010-2011 compared to 95.7 % in the previous year.

Despite of the NHS’s achievements in terms of cancer referrals and treatments, other parts of the NHS did not share the same success; the number of hospital patients waiting longer than the 18-week guarantee increased by a third in the past year. 28,000 patients of 300,000 seen in July 2011 had to wait beyond the target, a rise of 34% compared to July 2010, with those waiting more than 6 months rising to 55% to over 9,000 patients.

Overall the NHS continues to achieve its targets of seeing 90 % of patients within 18 weeks.

The British Dental Health Foundation carefully monitors waiting times for cancer patients and organizes the Mouth Cancer Action Month campaign each year in November, supported by Denplan, to help raise awareness of the disease and its symptoms.

Known risk factors for mouth cancer include drinking alcohol to excess, smoking, poor diet and some sexually transmitted infections (Human Papilloma Virus or HPV). Within the next decade about 60,000 people are likely to be affected by mouth cancer in the UK.

Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter commented:

“The NHS is doing a very good job once cancer patients are in the system. The challenge in relation to mouth cancer is to ensure that everyone recognizes the warning signs before it is too late. They include ulcers, which do not heal within three weeks, red and white patches in the mouth and unusual lumps or swellings in the mouth. Our message to everyone is ‘If in doubt, get checked out.'”

Written by Petra Rattue