Cancer is the nation’s biggest health concern, according to a poll

Polls have shown that two-thirds of Americans would be very or somewhat worried about being told they have the disease – higher than any other medical condition, including dementia or heart attacks.

A poll of 2,000 UK adults conducted by Public First on behalf of the University of Cambridge highlights people’s concerns about a cancer diagnosis. The survey found that the biggest concern about a cancer diagnosis is a delayed diagnosis – meaning it’s too late to treat the cancer (70%), followed by the impact on family and those around them (52%).

When asked what transformative development they would like to see in the future — be it the eradication of diseases like malaria, widespread use of self-driving cars, or the elimination of hunger through genetically modified crops — 55% of respondents chose “detecting and treating cancer early so that no one dies from it.” The only thing that came quite close, at 23%, was the eradication of poverty.

The University of Cambridge and its partners, Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH), are building a revolutionary new type of hospital that is expected to change the history of cancer: Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.

The specialist cancer facility will bring world-leading scientists together within the new NHS hospital for the first time to detect cancer earlier and offer patients personalised medicine and precision cancer treatment.

“Cancer affects one in two of us and is understandably frightening for patients and their families,” said Professor Richard Gilbertson, director of the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre at the University of Cambridge and lead researcher at Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital. “Not only do people worry that treatment will not work or that the side effects will be severe, they also worry about what a diagnosis will mean for their families.”

“At Cambridge, we believe it is possible to imagine a world where there is no fear of cancer – an ambitious goal that we are working hard to achieve, together with many researchers around the world.”

When asked what they would be most worried about if they were diagnosed with cancer, the most commonly chosen fear was finding the cancer too late to treat it (70%). About 52% of respondents were worried about the impact on family and those around them, 41% about whether they would receive appropriate treatment, and 36% about side effects of treatment.

When asked what would ease the fear of being diagnosed with cancer, 61% answered “Knowing that the cancer I have is treatable.” Reemphasizing the importance of early detection, more than half of respondents (51%) said “Knowing that cancer can be found early enough to be treated.”

“If cancer is diagnosed early it completely changes the outcome, improving survival rates and making treatments less invasive,” said Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald, director of the Li Ka Shing Early Cancer Institute at the University of Cambridge.

“That’s why we’re now focused on understanding cancer at a very early stage – years before symptoms appear. That way, we might be able to prevent the disease in the first place, or at least detect it at a stage where it can be easily treated.”

Polls suggest that many people would feel reassured if they knew that organisations such as the University of Cambridge were researching ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer.

A third (32%) of respondents said this would make a cancer diagnosis less frightening, and 43% believe that university cancer research would have a big impact on reducing the number of cancer deaths (although, perhaps unsurprisingly, 64% believe that reducing NHS waiting times would have the biggest impact on reducing cancer deaths).

Professor Deborah Prentiss, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, said: “The University of Cambridge is truly at the forefront of transforming our understanding of cancer and the way we prevent and treat it.

“This exciting research – from rapidly sequencing tumour DNA to the development of groundbreaking new cancer drugs like olaparib – will save and transform lives locally, nationally and around the world. This is world-leading research and I am incredibly proud.”

The public was asked about their opinion on using artificial intelligence (AI) to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment. The overwhelming majority supported the application, with only 8% saying AI should not be used in cancer diagnosis and treatment. About 55% thought it was acceptable to use AI to speed up research into new treatments, 47% to help doctors diagnose cancer, and 41% to help doctors determine which treatments would be most effective.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge are developing AI tools that have the potential to transform cancer care by speeding up diagnosis, personalizing treatment and reducing costs.

As part of this work, researchers are using AI to predict how patients will respond to certain treatments before they receive them, allowing treatment to be started sooner, targeting hard-to-treat cancers and enabling testing for cancers that are currently cost-prohibitive.

When presented with a long list of unwanted future events, a cancer diagnosis was the second most worrisome after the death of a close relative (64% vs. 72%), and higher than nuclear war (56%), terrorism (53%), and becoming a victim of crime (52%).

Surprisingly, significantly fewer older people than younger people said they were “very worried” about cancer: 14% of those aged 65 and over, 26% of those aged 18-24, and 29% of those aged 25-34.

The University of Cambridge is launching a month-long program focused on cancer research, including tours of its new hospital, meeting researchers studying the early stages of cancer, discovering how AI is helping to fight cancer, and meeting patients who are playing a key role in groundbreaking cancer research.