The House | We must urgently tackle the rise in late-stage oesophageal cancer diagnosis

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This week, the charity Action Against Heartburn released data showing that the proportion of oesophageal cancer cases diagnosed at stage 4 has risen from around a quarter to just over a third of all cases over the course of a decade. Sadly, I know from personal experience that this rise in late-stage diagnosis is catastrophic for patient survival.

I lost both my wife and father to oesophageal cancer within just a few weeks of one another. It’s a devastating disease that claims too many lives because patients are often diagnosed too late for treatments to be effective. 

Action Against Heartburn, which aims to raise awareness of the connection between ongoing heartburn and oesophageal cancer, analysed the latest available data on the proportion of oesophageal cancers diagnosed at each stage in England and found that diagnosis at stage 4 increased from 25.1 per cent in 2013 to 36.6 per cent in 2022. 

Stage 4 cancer is an advanced stage of the disease, and it means it has spread from its original site. It is serious and often incurable at this stage. 

Thanks to improved treatments, all UK cancer survival rates have generally increased in recent years, but progress for oesophageal cancer has been much slower. 

There are around 9,200 new cases of oesophageal cancer in the UK each year, and fewer than 20 per cent of people diagnosed will survive for more than five years. It is one of the ‘less survivable cancers’ and is often forgotten when it comes to awareness campaigns and research funding. 

The poor life expectancy of oesophageal cancer is largely due to late diagnosis. One-year survival for oesophageal cancer is 89 pr cent if it’s diagnosed at stage 1, but this drops to 26 per cent if it’s diagnosed at stage 4. 

To improve survival rates, we must see increased public awareness of key symptoms as well as faster routes to diagnosis, better use of innovative screening technologies, such as capsule sponge technology and biomarker testing, and more research into oesophageal cancer.

We also need to back research and development of breath, saliva and blood tests to improve the diagnostic tests available. Pharmacists should be able to give advice, and even simple diagnostic tests, to regular consumers of over-the-counter heartburn medication who have not yet seen their GP. Equally, GPs should be given the tools to be able to give these relatively easy diagnostic tests at their surgeries.     

Oesophageal cancer may be difficult to diagnose and treat at the moment, but the same could have been said for other cancers a couple of decades ago that have shown remarkable improvements. It is now time that we also showed this same determination to reduce cancer deaths from oesophageal and other less survivable cancers.

I am pleased to see that improved access to diagnostic tests for oesophageal cancer was included in the National Cancer Plan, which was published on World Cancer Day. It’s a step towards hope for the thousands of people who will be diagnosed with this brutal disease.

Patrick Hurley is Labour MP for Southport