Cancer Research UK spends more than 400 million pounds ($502 million) a year supporting research at some 90 different institutions. Its income is from private donations and the proceeds of its 600 charity shops, which have been closed in the lockdown. The charity is projecting a 25% drop in income this year and has already made a 44-million pound cut to its research portfolio. Anthony Nolan’s Braund says it expects a fall of a quarter to a half of gross income this year.
If we’re looking for silver linings, the Covid crisis seems to have sped up the adoption of more targeted, simplified therapies for a host of cancers, which can mean fewer trips to the hospital or less toxic treatment. It has resulted in some useful partnerships with private hospitals. And many doctors have said private hallelujahs to the way the crisis has cut bureaucracy. There is now an opportunity for a high-level rethink of how health care is delivered; a new NHS Confederation report calls for such a “reset.”
Not all delays or changes to treatment protocols mean shortened lives, either. Many people can safely have treatment postponed or changed. My father-in-law’s prostate cancer in 2012 was treated with radiation; that’s generally a slow-moving cancer and waiting out a pandemic may have been fine. However, he died seven years later, after battling a far more aggressive cancer that needed frequent interventions. (The other two cancers in my family were also not ones where waiting was a great option; one treatment was curative and the other bought a couple more quality years of life.)
The virus has undoubtedly set back the U.K.’s cancer fighting cause. But some things will make a difficult situation worse: A lack of Covid-19 testing capacity, delays to contact tracing and unclear guidance from the government were repeatedly mentioned to me. The longer it takes to resume services, the greater the chance that Britain will lurch from one health crisis straight into another.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.