Latest news with #cancerpatients
Sky News
3 days ago
- Health
- Sky News
New blood test to 'revolutionise' NHS cancer treatment
A new ultra-sensitive blood test which can detect tiny fragments of tumour DNA could be "revolutionary" for NHS patients. Thousands of patients will be offered liquid biopsies, which can help fast-track lung cancer patients to receive targeted treatments. Tissue biopsies are used to confirm a diagnosis of lung cancer and samples can be sent for genomic testing. But liquid biopsies allow for results much faster, and can show patients if they have mutations. Rebeca Proctor, 41, was treated a suspected chest infection last December. After she began coughing up blood, she was diagnosed with stage four cancer - which she called a "punch to the gut". "I was scared - I just thought about my children, and if I would get to see my little girl start nursery, and how I would explain my diagnosis to my children - it was just heartbreaking to think about," the mother of four from Carlisle said. A liquid biopsy showed she had an ALK genetic mutation of her non-small-cell lung cancer. A tissue biopsy took ten days longer to confirm the same result, but in the meantime she could begin a targeted treatment. New medication has "given me my life back", she says. "I'm taking it day-by-day and for now the treatment is doing what it's meant to be doing and shrinking the tumour, and I've got my energy back," she said. "I know I'm not going to be cured but I've come to terms with my diagnosis and the pills are stopping my cancer cells from spreading - we'll keep fighting this and dealing with what's been thrown at us." Breast and lung cancers are two of the most common in England - around 90,000 people are diagnosed with one of them each year. Potential to 'scan' the body in a single blood test NHS England will become the first health service in the world to roll-out a "blood-test first" approach to diagnosing lung cancer, and it follows a successful pilot of the testing last year. Up to 15,000 patients could benefit. The NHS has also said it is expanding testing in advanced breast cancer, with several genetic variations now being screened for. It could save the health service up to £11m per year in lung cancer care. Professor Peter Johnson, NHS national clinical director for cancer, said it would enable patients to receive "more targeted and kinder care", as it would enable some to avoid more intensive treatments - such as chemotherapy - in place of a more targeted approach. "Liquid biopsies are leading us into a new era of personalised cancer care and it's fantastic that we are now able to expand the use of this revolutionary test on the NHS to help tailor treatment for thousands of patients across the country," he said. Liquid biopsies, he added, have the potential to "scan" the body in a single blood test. Professor Dame Sue Hill, Chief Scientific Officer for England, said: "This testing is transforming care and helping clinicians match patients earlier especially when cancer tissue may not be available with potentially life-extending targeted therapies rapidly and with greater precision." The health secretary called it an "incredibly exciting new test" that could save countless lives. "It is just the latest example of this government combining the compassionate care of our National Health Service with the ingenuity of Britain's leading scientific minds to revolutionise cancer care," Wes Streeting said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Demolition set to begin at future site of Donna Terrell's Warrior Lodge
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Ark. – Demolition is about to begin at the future home of Donna Terrell's Warrior Lodge at Jefferson Regional, a no-cost temporary residence for cancer patients and their caregivers undergoing long-term treatment. While today was all about the photo opportunity, the real work begins in just a few days. This project is a joint effort between the Yoga Warriors nonprofit and Jefferson Regional's Jones-Dunklin Cancer Center. Due to rising construction costs, the partners pivoted from building a brand-new facility to repurposing the former School of Nursing building on the campus of Jefferson Regional. The move allows the team to remain responsible stewards of the generous donations received so far. The Warrior Lodge will be the first facility of its kind in southeast Arkansas, providing a supportive, cost-free place for patients and caregivers to stay during treatment. Yoga Warriors will oversee daily operations, including staffing and programming. Demolition is expected to last three weeks, after which construction will begin. Yoga Warriors rely on community support and donations to bring the vision to life. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
BBC News
4 days ago
- Health
- BBC News
Castle Hill Hospital expands virtual reality therapy
A hospital in East Yorkshire is offering the use of virtual reality (VR) equipment to cancer patients and their loved ones to help them Hill Hospital offered the tech to young patients being treated in its Teenage and Young Adult Unit last headsets transport users to relaxing landscapes such as beach, mountain and forest settings and the Northern proved so popular that the Cottingham hospital has invested in more equipment to extend the project to other cancer patients and will also hold a taster session for loved ones and carers. Dr Jennie Ormerod, from the hospital, said: "Studies have shown that the same parts of our brain are [as] activated in virtual environments as they are in real-life settings."Last year the Humber and North Yorkshire Cancer Alliance provided £1,600 to the hospital to buy the VR "fantastic feedback", the cancer psychological team invested in more equipment so patients of any age and their family, friends and carers could experience it as well. Dr Ormerod said: "A cancer diagnosis can be really difficult to come to terms with and treatment can sometimes be gruelling, so we wanted to be able to offer something to help our patients regulate their emotions and put them in a better place psychologically."Patients can book to use the headsets at the Macmillan Information Centre on Tuesday afternoons from 3 June.A drop-in session will also take place at the centre on 24 June for anyone interested in testing the headsets. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
ABC News
5 days ago
- Health
- ABC News
Cancer surgeries are getting delayed at Orange Hospital to hit waitlist targets, doctor claims
Inside one of NSW's largest regional hospitals doctors allege there are patient care breaches that contravene NSW health policy. Those alleged breaches include downgrading the urgency of cancer patients and delaying their surgery without clinical justification. Doctors say hospital management is to blame and also accuse them of not bringing on an extra breast cancer surgeon because it would create more demand. Doctor Rob Knox is a general surgeon and the current director of the surgical department at Orange Hospital. He first suspected something was not right in early 2024 as he prepared to operate on some of his cancer patients. While checking patient notes he saw that the urgency of their operations had been changed from the highest to the lowest priority. "When I've rocked up on the day I've seen a different category against these patients' names," Dr Knox told 7.30. "So I've questioned [hospital] management and said, 'Well hang on, what's happened here'?" He had allocated his cancer patients a Category One surgery, which meant their operations must be done within 30 days. He says those surgeries had been changed to Category Four, which means the patients were "not ready for care". "When directly challenging senior management they've dug in their heels and they've said, 'Actually no, we're allowed to do this,'" Dr Knox said. The encounter prompted Dr Knox to start keeping records of discrepancies and he asked his fellow surgeons to do the same. "We started documenting these issues and challenging management and, unfortunately, rather than advocate for patient care, decisions were taken and responses given that seem to be more protective of the system than of the patients we're supposed to be serving," he said. Since then the surgeons say they have fielded numerous requests from hospital management to change the patients' clinical urgency status, so they don't "breach" their recommended waiting time. In some instances operations have been reclassified without the doctors' approval. 7.30 has seen emails sent to doctors at Orange Hospital, which include requests to suspend an operation and to make a patient "not ready for care". Another surgeon was contacted to seek approval to extend a patient's 30-day wait to 90 days due to a lack of theatre space. Dr Knox says the re-categorisations contravene NSW Health policy. "The policy is quite clear that it should not be influenced by the availability of hospital resources or even the surgeon's availability." The NSW Health policy lists five options that must be considered by hospitals to avoid breaching waiting times. These include providing additional theatre time or referring a patient to another doctor. "Postponements or delays to surgery must be avoided and only occur when all alternative options are exhausted," the policy states. In an email to a senior manager in February 2024, Dr Knox challenged the hospital's actions. "Whilst we don't really make a noise if non-cancer cases breach their clinical urgency by a few days, we should and do for cancers," he wrote. He says health data shows a four-week delay in surgery can result in a five per cent increased mortality rate. "It's very hard to say that a delay of one to two to five days makes a difference, but undoubtedly on a broader level it does, and to one individual, it is going to make a difference." The Orange Health Service declined 7.30's request for an interview but in a statement a spokesperson for the Western NSW Local Health District (LHD) said it "rejects claims that surgeons have been asked to reclassify surgical procedures and prioritise waiting list targets over patient care". "The five options described in NSW Health policy to assist in managing patients within the required time-frames are activated where possible but may be affected by … the availability of surgical and other staff, appropriate theatre facilities," the spokesperson said. The LHD said the number of patients waiting longer for a planned surgery than clinically recommended did not "constitute a wait time blow out". NSW Health Minister Ryan Park said he had been assured by the hospital that it was complying with the guidelines. "I want to be clear that shouldn't be happening, that's against clinical guidelines. We have a framework in place," Mr Park told 7.30. "My advice is that that hospital and the staff have been following that. "If there are issues where that has not been the case, then I'd want them investigated. "What we expect is patients' clinical care to be first, second and third KPI. That's what I expect as the health minister." One patient who faced an anxious wait is Katrina Reiss. The young mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in June 2024 and underwent chemotherapy and immunotherapy before being booked in for surgery last December. She had worked in the hospital's surgery admissions office for 19 years, before leaving in 2021. She knew she could expect her surgery date within days of handing in her form. Her fears escalated when she did not have a date more than a week later. "I knew that it wasn't exactly the way that it was supposed to go," Ms Reiss told 7.30. "I was starting to get concerned, because we were coming up to the Christmas closure time as well. "I was really worried that I wasn't going to be getting my surgery within the 30-day period. "I knew the policy so well, and I knew how the system should have worked. I was able to advocate for myself, and I was confident enough to be able to go to my surgeon and say, 'this isn't right, can you help me?' Ms Reiss had her surgery within the 30-day time-frame last December and is now cancer free. But it is this lead up to Christmas which is when surgeons are under the greatest pressure. "There's a lot more cancer diagnosis that happens at that time," urological surgeon Dr Clair Whelan said. "People put off their diagnosis, something they've been ignoring a lump, bleeding, and then by the time they get to December they finally decide to go to their GP and get that thing sorted. "Those are the times when we're most stretched to be able to get cases done in theatre and to be asked to re-classify patients according to urgency." Dr Whelan was director of surgery before Dr Knox and shares his concerns about how waiting lists are being managed. She says while she has never had patients re-categorised without her approval, any requests she does receive put her in an impossible position. "Sometimes it becomes really difficult, particularly when we are talking about those cancer patients, to say, 'well, I can't pick that one of these cancers is going to be more urgent,' because sometimes we don't know that until after the [surgery]," she said. Dr Whelan said some patients have taken the matter into their own hands. "We certainly had examples of patients towards the end of last year who removed themselves from the public hospital waiting list, and what the hospital sees is, 'great, those patients no longer need their operation,'" she said. The latest data from the Bureau of Health Information in late 2024 shows 37 patients waited longer for their surgery at Orange Hospital than the recommended time-frame, which is an increase since the previous reporting period. But Dr Knox said the doctors' own records showed the hospital's figures did not reflect what they were seeing. Dr Knox says the wait begins from the time people are referred to a specialist surgeon. "That waiting time has increased significantly," he said. "We've looked at the data here and the average in Australia is that about 39 per cent or 35 per cent of patients wait more than one month to see a specialist," he said. Dr Knox's waiting list records, seen by 7.30, also show that for diagnostic procedures, such as colonoscopies, many patients could not be treated within the recommended time-frame. "It's what we often would term the 'hidden wait list,"' he said. The surgeons believe the waiting list pressures are being caused by access to operating theatres and doctor vacancies. Orange recently lost its only vascular surgeon and one of Dr Whelan's colleagues moved interstate, leaving her and one other urological surgeon servicing a large swathe of western NSW. When Dr Knox asked at a hospital clinical council meeting in August 2024 about the appointment of an additional breast cancer surgeon to cope with demand, he was shocked by a senior manager's reply. "Obviously we're not generating pathology out there in the community. We're not walking around with ray guns, zapping people to try and generate pathology. "The meaning of that is that we will generate a waitlist of patients and move this hidden waitlist into a very visible waitlist that then becomes the hospital's liability to deal with. "The obvious question is, who benefits from this? It's not patients, it's not clinicians, it's the health system." The spokesperson for the Western NSW Local Health District said "a business case was being prepared to examine the current and future vascular surgical demand". Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
The Guardian
24-05-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
NSW SES uses drone to deliver urgent medication to patients isolated by floodwaters
NSW SES has delivered urgent medical supplies to cancer patients isolated by floodwaters in the north of the state in what's believed to be an Australian first. NSW SES drone pilot Gabe Mihalas said having the option to use a drone meant keeping volunteers out of floodwater and out of danger. Within three hours of the delivery, the patients had been treated by a nurse and were reportedly already back home. The NSW SES has completed 200 resupply jobs in the past two days and continues to undertake further resupplies while areas remained flooded.
