Patients from deprived areas in England are more likely to have a late cancer diagnosis and be admitted to hospital as an emergency, a study suggests.
Women and older people also fare worse in getting a prompt diagnosis, the team from University College London found.
This did not improve despite an extra £570m being invested via the NHS Cancer plan during the first three years of the 2000-2006 study, the study showed.
The government has said cutting cancer inequalities remains a major goal. Figures for the three most common cancers - colorectal, breast, and lung cancer - were examined for the six-year period.
They showed 564,821 patients aged 50 and over were admitted to an NHS hospital in England with a diagnosis.
Almost a third of patients with colorectal cancer were admitted as emergencies - a proportion which did not improve over time.
More than half of patients with lung cancer were also admitted as emergencies, a figure which got worse over time.
But there was a downward trend in the proportion of patients with breast cancer admitted as emergencies.
Read more at BBC Health.
Tags: Cancer
