Cancer care: Why women deserve better

The disruption to cancer services have stretched health systems and left thousands of women with no specialist care. Femtech World reports. 

The pandemic has caused significant disruptions and has deepened health inequalities.

According to a recent BMJ report, Covid has had a drastic effect on the entire cancer continuum through interruption, delays, and altered modes of screening, diagnosis, and treatment as well as follow-up and palliative care.

Of the four million people living with cancer in the UK, 36 per cent of them are of working age. Two thirds of those are women.

As they are typically the primary carer for children and elderly relatives, the big C is even more likely to affect them disproportionately.

“Not only have you got more women impacted by cancer, but the impact of their cancer has a greater effect on a larger number of people,” says Kelly McCabe, co-founder and CEO of the cancer support platform Perci Health.

Although women cancer survivors have both psychological and physiological needs, these are often neglected.

After cancer treatment, women are offered follow-up appointments every few months, but this is not enough, says McCabe.

Kelly McCabe, Perci Health co-founder 

“People don’t think about the huge lasting impact that cancer has on someone’s life. There’s a real gap across the board in both the private and the public sector for when treatment ends,” she explains.

“Breast cancer – currently the most common type of cancer in the UK – is often described as a good one to have. But in reality many women with breast cancer have to go through every single treatment modality available – chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and hormone therapy – which can hugely impact their lives.”

As a registered oncology dietitian, McCabe has seen that cancer survivors are not offered enough support.

“I’ve realised that the people who are more likely to be able to help with these ongoing questions and rehabilitation needs aren’t actually doctors,” she says. “They tend to be nurses, dieticians, psychologists, physios and the other professionals who specialise in various areas and have the time to talk to patients.

“So, when we launched Perci, we wanted to bring together the whole team of people that [a cancer survivor] might need onto one digital platform.”

Perci Health is the first online platform that gives people access to support from multidisciplinary cancer teams focused holistically on recovery from a physical, mental, social and emotional point of view.

Although public healthcare systems offer little long-term support, McCabe says that is something essential for improving health outcomes and lowering the risk of recurrent cancer.

“Our healthcare system is not set up to deliver personalised patient-centred care. We talk about doing it, but we don’t do it very well,” she says.

“Currently, there’s very little data in cancer survivors, focusing on what happens in those five to 10 years after treatment, but that doesn’t mean the needs aren’t there.

“The data shows that for 70 per cent of people cancer will have an impact on their sexual function, but for women it remains an area completely neglected after treatment. Induced menopause is another issue for those who had hormonal breast cancer treatments, but there are very few cancer-trained menopause specialists out there.”

McCabe thinks that an over-reliance on charities and support organisations has led to a lack of support within the public health system.

“Historically, holistic wraparound cancer support has been delegated to charities,” she explains. “But although charities have an important role, they cannot afford to provide personalised one-to-one support to every person with cancer in the UK and they’re not able to provide clinical support.

“We’ve relied on a one-size-fits-all approach and at the end of your cancer treatment, the follow-up care is based on a risk assessment – to determine whether you are at high, moderate or low risk. But that’s as personalised as it gets.

“However, in order to improve [long-term] support, we need a holistic needs assessment, which should happen at the beginning of treatment, regularly throughout your treatment and at the end of your treatment.

“Sometimes the needs assessment happens, but the problems aren’t addressed. It feels like people are trying, but the attempts they are making are not as effective as they as they need to be.”

Perci received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The founder hopes that the platform will be able to help over 200,000 people affected by cancer in the next five years, becoming the largest cancer support platform.

“We’ve helped thousands of people already and we’re starting to sign more and more partnerships with hospital providers and charities,” she says.

“Our goal is to help more cancer survivors and analyse the data around the problems they are experiencing and the interventions they need.

“We are trying to champion the fact that cancer needs to be managed as a chronic condition. It’s not yet, but if we can achieve our goal, we can really start to change the way it is managed.”