Around 3,500 lives may be lost to four common cancers over the next five years due to delays in diagnosis caused by Covid-19, experts have said.
A drop-off in the number of people seeing their GP with symptoms, and lower referrals for scans, could result in cancer being spotted too late, according to research published in The Lancet Oncology.
Even when people are referred to hospital, there are growing delays in accessing diagnostic services that could save lives, the study warned.
This combined effect means there must be a rapid ramping up of NHS diagnostics to prevent further avoidable deaths. NHS figures show that 106,535 urgent cancer referrals were made by GPs in England in May 2020, down from 200,599 in May 2019 - a fall of 47%.