Cancer is a momentous issue globally, affecting more than 14 million lives each year and accounting for approximately 15 per cent of all deaths [1]. Here in the UK, somebody dies from cancer every four minutes [2].
As people age, their risk of living with multiple healthcare conditions also increases — half of all cancer cases in the UK each year are diagnosed in people aged 70 or over [3]. This makes the management of the elderly patient population an important consideration within the design of cancer services.
We are fortunate to have support in place to help us fight this disease through routine NHS screening, healthy living support and access to treatments. However, a report by Cancer Research UK [4] highlighted major gaps in our diagnostics services, including pathology, which are creating bottlenecks and causing ‘many thousands of patients to be in limbo’.
Diagnostic imaging and pathology play a critical role in the detection and diagnosis of cancer, as well as a wide variety of other diseases.
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