Press Play: Getting and keeping breast cancer services back on track

Summary

In March, the charity Breast Cancer Now asked people with breast cancer to tell us how coronavirus had affected their treatment and care. 580 people responded. Many reported that they or their loved ones had experienced delays or cancellations to treatment and monitoring scans. Others had not experienced any changes to their treatment.

To understand how people’s experiences may have changed and try to better quantify some of the impacts, Breast Cancer Now ran a second survey between 9 July and 6 August. 2,124 people with breast cancer responded.

They also spoke to 12 healthcare professionals from different parts of the breast cancer pathway including radiographers, surgeons, oncologists specialising in drug treatment and radiotherapy, and clinical nurse specialists. This was supplemented by data available on the impact of the pandemic, for example on referrals to see a specialist.

This report sets out their findings and recommendations for what needs to happen next to tackle the challenges identified. The content is split into four sections:

• Diagnosis
• Treatment
• Clinical trials and research
• Care and support.