Professor M. John Kennedy:

It is very true that people from deprived areas have worse and more cancers, including later-stage cancers, than people from other areas. Also, they do worse with therapy. This has to do with a host of factors, including medical literacy and access to diagnostics. There is no doubt but that the NCCP has worked quite substantially on public awareness, but more can always be done. It has been said that we are not going to treat our way out of this problem, which means we are going to have to reduce the incidence, or at least the acceleration of the incidence, of cancer as best we can. That is done in the public health arena. We need as much education and awareness raising, targeted at the right populations, as possible. We also need to ensure they have access to diagnostics and are diagnosed at an early stage.