Publish date: 5 January 2023
A Liverpool consultant and breast cancer expert has, for the first time, published the number of people in England who have secondary breast cancer.
The findings show a higher amount of people with the disease than was estimated – and will help to give policy-makers an idea of the level of services needed for these patients.
Prof Carlo Palmieri, Professor of Translational Oncology at the University of Liverpool and Consultant in Medical Oncology at The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Foundation Trust, used hospital episode statistics (HES) to estimate the number of people living with metastatic breast cancer in England, how this figure had changed over the previous five years, and the level of clinical activity created in the treatment and care of these people.
Data already available shows that in 2019, there were 48,387 new cases of breast cancer, with 9,525 recorded deaths of the disease – the vast majority being due to metastatic breast cancer. The new findings from Prof Palmieri’s research – conducted with Joshua Owide and Kirsty Fryer, of Wilmington Healthcare – shows that the number of people living with metastatic breast cancer is on the rise, with a corresponding increase in the number of spells in hospital.
Cancer charity Breast Cancer Now described the findings as a “landmark moment”.
Baroness Delyth Morgan, Chief Executive of Breast Cancer Now, said: “Today’s new estimate that 57,215 people were living with secondary breast cancer in England in 2020/21 (April 2020 to March 2021) is a landmark moment in understanding the true number of people living with secondary breast cancer in England.
"For too long, a lack of current data has meant that no-one has understood the real scale of the care, treatment and support needs of these patients.”
For more on this story see: https://news.liverpool.ac.uk/2022/12/22/new-findings-show-scale-of-secondary-breast-cancer-in-england/