Cancer is largest well being concern amongst Brits, ballot reveals
Cancer is the biggest health concern among the public with late detection the largest worry, according to a poll.
Two-thirds of people say they are very or somewhat worried about being told they have the disease – higher than for any other medical condition including dementia and having a heart attack.
The polling, carried out among 2,000 UK adults, revealed that late detection – too late to treat – is the biggest concern relating to a diagnosis, followed by the impact on one’s family and those around them.
More than half of respondents said they would choose ‘being able to detect and treat cancer early enough so that no-one dies of the disease’ as which transformative development they would like to see in the future.
This trumped eradicating diseases such as malaria, self-driving cars becoming common, and genetically engineered crops enabling us to end famine.
Professor Richard Gilbertson, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre said cancer is the biggest health concern among the public with late detection the largest worry, according to a new poll
Chief concerns are that treatments won’t work or that the side-effects will be terrible, as well as the impact on a person’s family, the poll found. Pictured: Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre
The research was carried out by Public First on behalf of the University of Cambridge, who are working to build a new hospital with a specialist cancer facility.
‘Cancer affects one in two of us and understandably induces fear in patients and their families’, said Professor Richard Gilbertson, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre.
‘People are worried that treatments won’t work or that the side-effects will be terrible, but also what their diagnosis will mean to their family.’
When asked what would make them less afraid of being diagnosed, 61 per cent of people said that knowing the form they had is treatable’.
‘Outcomes can be completely transformed – better survival and less invasive treatments – if the cancer is diagnosed early enough,’ said Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, Director of the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge.
The polling, carried out among 2,000 UK adults, revealed that late detection – too late to treat – is the biggest concern relating to a diagnosis, followed by the impact on one’s family and those around them. Pictured: T-cells attack a cancer cell in the body (file pic)
‘That’s why a lot of our focus now is on understanding cancer at its very earliest stage – years before an individual will develop any symptoms.
‘That way, it may even be possible to prevent the disease in the first place, or at least catch it when it can be treated easily.’
