Doctors must be more open about antimicrobial resistant infections in cancer deaths

Doctors must be more transparent with patients and families about the role of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in deaths, especially among cancer patients, the UK’s special envoy on AMR says.

Speaking at the World Health Summit in Berlin, Sally Davies—England’s previous chief medical officer—said it was common for families to understand a death as being caused by cancer without being told that an untreatable infection had contributed.

Instead, greater openness and patient advocacy were needed to urge political action on AMR, she argued.

“When patients die … the relatives think of cancer and they had an infection. No one says actually it was untreatable; it was AMR,” she said.

“AMR is much more common in cancer patients, and one in four have serious infections. We’ve got to be much more open.

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Source: BMJ, 12 October 2026