Thousands of lives will be lost to lung cancer because of Government advice to stay at home with a cough during the pandemic, a study has found.
The UK Lung Cancer Coalition (UKLCC) said Covid has sent decades of improvements in survival rates into reverse due to delays in diagnosis.
Urgent referrals from GPs for lung cancer fell by one third during the first year of the pandemic, meaning thousands of patients are missing out on lifesaving treatment.
Lung cancer patients were disproportionately affected by the pandemic because a key symptom is coughing — and Government advice said people with a cough must self-isolate.
Thousands of lives will be lost to lung cancer because of Government advice to stay at home with a cough during the pandemic, a study has found.
Professor Robert Rintoul, chair of the UKLCC's clinical advisory group, said: ‘Prior to the pandemic, real progress was being made in raising five-year survival rates