People are 'dying because they ignore warning signs of cancer to go on holiday', Blackpool expert warns on World Cancer Day

Jawad Islam, a consultant at Blackpool Victoria Hospital who specialists in the six urology cancers, said 20 to 30 per cent of patients wait so long to get help their tumours have already spread.

He said: "This could be halved. All we need to do is make people aware of the symptoms."

Currently, there are no screening programmes for the six urology cancers - bladder, prostate, penile, testicular, and kidney - and Mr Islam said the onus is on people to check themselves for unexplained lumps and other red flags, including blood in urine.

He spoke to The Gazette ahead of World Cancer Day, and the launch of a new 'Let's Talk Cancer' campaign today.

"We do a lot of campaigns and when we do, there's a surge in patients coming to us, but when we don't, people leave it along and say, 'It will clear up'."

The faster people get seen by a doctor, the faster treatment can start - boosting people's chances of survival, especially when they are diagnosed with testicular cancer, which is one of the fastest to spread and kills around 70 men a year, though it is also one of the most treatable forms to have.

There are nine Government cancer waiting time targets, and health bosses in Blackpool have struggled in recent years to hit all of them, though work is going on behind the scenes.

Talks are ongoing with national health service bosses so an increased demand for colonsocopies - which have rocketed since a change in the bowel screening programme last June - can be met, while a second ultrasound machine is being brought in for breast cancer patients.

Around £4 million will also be spent in Blackpool over the course of a national four-year lung health check project, with the resort being selected for the first wave of the roll-out.

And a new A&E unit specifically for cancer patients was opened at the Victoria Hospital, in Whinney Heys Road, following a fund-raising drive by the hospital's in-house charity Blue Skies and the Rosemere Cancer Foundation.

A new four-bed unit for lung cancer patients was also opened, with heart surgeon Andrew Duncan saying it would "help us provide excellent care".

There have been improvements, hospital documents revealed, and an action plan has been drafted.

But while major investment and medics' efforts may help, in time, to eradicate delays from within the NHS, in some cases the patients must take the blame.

Some are "choosing to wait longer than 14 days for their first appointment", hospital documents recently revealed, and Mr Islam said "some patients have absolutely no insight" into the seriousness of their situation.

"Some will say, 'I have a holiday booked and I can't cancel it'. That is one of the major reasons people delay the investigation," he said.

"We tell some people they have cancer and need treatment and they said they can't have it for the next few months because they have commitments."

"When you get to the doctor and you are referred, most cases and can diagnosed at an early stage. That's when the cancer can be cured. If they don't get to the GP, then they won't be referred to us."

Those being treated with anti-coagulants - medicine that helps prevent clots by thinning the blood - for other medical conditions also face delays, because they leave patients more at risk of bleeding.

But for those who simply put off urgent appointments in favour of their social, home, or worklife, a stark message is coming.

"We will give them a card saying they may have a cancer so we need to get the investigation done as soon as possible," Mr Islam, who won The Gazette's Patients' Award at the hospital's annual awards ceremony in 2016, said.

"We are trying to warn them."

Lung cancer: GPs urged to be alert to risks of cough and shortness of breath

GPs are being urged to consider shortness of breath and a cough as potential predictors of lung cancer because they are becoming more common as the first symptom in diagnosis, a study suggests.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the UK and has a five-year survival rate of around 13%.

Researchers examined 27,795 records of adults who were diagnosed with lung cancer between 2000 and 2017 at more than 600 UK GP practices to try to establish which symptoms patients present first to their doctor.

The team found an increase in both cough and shortness of breath as the first symptom patients reported when they went on to be diagnosed with lung cancer.

They found a decrease in patients who reported the first symptom to be coughing up blood, or loss of appetite, generally regarded as the headline symptom of lung cancer.

The study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK and supported by the National Institute for Health Research, was led by the University of Exeter Medical School.

Co-author Professor Willie Hamilton said: "Lung cancer is the biggest cancer killer in the UK.

"Our paper shows a rapid change in the first symptom doctors are seeing. That's probably not caused by any change in basic biology, it's more likely to be down to earlier detection.

"It means teaching must change - clinicians must be alert to the risks of cough and shortness of breath."

Sara Hiom, director of early diagnosis at Cancer Research UK, said: "This important study indicates that people are now going to the doctor about different symptoms of lung cancer, such as cough and shortness of breath, possibly because of awareness campaigns in the past.

"Most people with these symptoms will not have lung cancer, but it's well worth letting your GP decide if you need tests - because if it is cancer, a prompt diagnosis and speedy treatment make all the difference.

"And although smoking makes it much more likely, remember that non-smokers can have lung cancer too."

- The study, Changes in the presenting symptoms of lung cancer from 2000 to 2017: a serial cross-sectional study of observational records in UK primary care, is published in the British Journal of General Practice.