Patients missing radiotherapy benefits

At the moment, almost 40 per cent of patients in the UK receive radiotherapy but around 50 per cent could actually benefit.

Therefore, some 30,000 cancer patients may be missing out on the treatment – which cancer Research UK says has "Cinderella status".

A survey for the charity published today found only one in 10 people knew that radiotherapy helped to cure 40 per cent of cancer patients.

And only 14 per cent of 2,000 people polled were aware that half of all cancer patients could benefit from radiotherapy as part of their treatment.

The poll also found that other treatments, such as new drugs, surgery and chemotherapy, were generally regarded as more "cutting edge" than radiotherapy.

According to Cancer Research UK, one of the problems with radiotherapy is that accessing the right equipment varies between hospitals and staffing is an issue.

Even patients are offered radiotherapy can wait a long time for treatment and public awareness of the role it plays is low.