Thread by @cpeedell

As an #NHS cancer consultant , I have a public duty to raise the alarm that the Government is failing cancer patients during the #COVID19 crisis. A key cancer treatment that will be crucial to tackling the upcoming surge in cancer cases is still being rationed by NHS England 1/

Stereotactic radiotherapy (#SABR or SBRT) is a method of radiation delivery that can accurately deliver very high doses of radiation to localised cancers. It’s used to treat a wide variety of cancers including lung, prostate, kidney, and liver cancers. 2/

SABR requires fewer outpatient visits (typically 1-5) compared to conventional radiotherapy (20-30). It frees up radiotherapy capacity, reduces #COVID19 exposure, and is more cost-effective. This is crucial in #COVID19 era, because more patients are going to need radiotherapy 3/

Firstly, as a result of the necessary lockdown, we are facing an upcoming surge of cancer cases. The could overwhelm services, resulting in more delays and an inevitable increase in cancer related morbidity and mortality. 5/

Secondly, radiotherapy demand will increase because surgery is currently more risky eg mortality rates of 25-30% have been reported in patients who develop #covid19 infection in post-op period. Hence more patients will be referred for radiotherapy as an alternative to surgery. 4/

It is therefore crucial that we build up radiotherapy capacity to deal with this inevitable crisis. The good news is that we can do it. Innovative techniques like #SABR and other reduced fractionation schedules are already being used 5/

The bad news is that despite all of this brilliant innovation from the radiation oncology community, the Government is preventing us from expanding our services by its inaction. If we our going to cope with the upcoming crisis, we need to adapt and act right NOW 6/

The key issue the Government needs to address is that although all UK cancer centres have the equipment & expertise to deliver these innovative radiotherapy treatments, only 60% of our NHS cancer centres have a contract to so. We need to unshackle the remaining 40% immediately 7/

The cancer crisis will continue to build in the next few months & we need to be preparing now. @MattHancock & @NHSEngland need to allow all centres to do #SABR. We can use #telemedicine to help with training & radiotherapy quality assurance. They need to act now to save lives 8/

Please put pressure on @MattHancock and @NHSEngland to open #SABR services in every UK radiotherapy centre by sharing this thread. The UK radiotherapy community is raring to go to help them make this happen. More delays will just cause more tragic loss of life #COVID19 9/