UK’s new Covid fight must not come at expense of cancer patients: Medics

Health experts are concerned about the impact tougher Covid restrictions could have on cancer patients in England, as frightening new numbers reveal that the number of people participating in research studies dropped by nearly 60% during the epidemic.

According to a report by the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), nearly 40,000 cancer patients in England were “robbed” of the opportunity to participate in life-saving trials during the first year of the coronavirus crisis, which said Covid-19 had compounded long-standing issues of trial funding, regulation, and access.

According to data collected by the ICR from the National Institute for Health Research, the number of patients enrolled in cancer clinical trials in England plummeted to 27,734 in 2020-21, down 59 percent from a three-year average of 67,057. Almost every kind of cancer studied saw a decrease in the number of individuals enrolled in clinical trials.

Health experts said the relentless impact of Covid on the ability of doctors and scientists to run clinical trials was denying many thousands of cancer patients access to the latest treatment options and delaying the development of cutting-edge drugs.

Nick James, professor of prostate and bladder cancer research at the ICR, said: “Clinical trials are the single best way to turn advances in science into patient benefits. But trial recruitment has plummeted during the pandemic, slowing the pipeline of new treatments and robbing people with cancer access to potentially life-saving medicines.

“We need urgent investment in the Covid-19 recovery of clinical trials. We also need to learn the lessons from Covid-19. It’s clear that bureaucracy and regulatory barriers for clinical trials often do more harm than good, hindering our progress in developing the next gamechanging cancer treatments.”

Asked about the possible impact of further Covid restrictions on cancer research and patients, James said that Plan B “may not be a bad thing” if it helped the NHS to continue treating cancer patients.

However, he expressed concerns that a renewed “focus” on the virus may come at a cost to cancer patients and clinical trials. “Given at present Covid deaths are running way below cancer deaths, we just have to make sure we don’t focus on the wrong things to the detriment of a much wider group of people, by worsening outcomes for things that are actually much bigger killers than Covid.”