Charity raises concerns over poor public awareness of cancer
symptoms
17 August 2009
The British population has a poor awareness of the symptoms
of cancer, a charity survey indicates.
According to figures from Cancer Research UK, one in seven
people was unable to name any symptoms of cancer.
The charity believes that as many as 5,000 deaths could be
prevented in the UK every year if cancers were diagnosed
earlier.
Sara Hiom, director of health information at Cancer Research UK,
said: "While it's good news that most people correctly named some
cancer symptoms, we're concerned by the number of people who drew a
complete blank.
"We're not expecting people to be able to recall every symptom,
but being generally aware of changes that could be a sign of cancer
could make a crucial difference for people who do develop the
disease."
Cancer Research UK is currently running the National Awareness
and Early Diagnosis Initiative to combat low public awareness of
cancer, reduce delays in primary care and support new research.
Some 285,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed every year in the
UK, the charity reports.
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