<p><br /> Nearly a quarter of cancer diagnoses in England are made when patients arrive at hospital in an emergency, a study has found.<br /> </p><p><br /> Research by the National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) found that 23 per cent of cancer cases were detected only as patients underwent emergency treatment.<br /> </p><p><br /> The figures were even starker for sufferers of acute leukaemia and brain cancer, where well over half of cases were discovered at a critical stage.<br /> </p><p><br /> Pensioners and those under 25 were most likely to be diagnosed with cancer during emergency procedures, while poor people were more likely to suffer from late detection than the rich.<br /> </p><p><br /> The study found that people whose cancer was detected at an emergency stage were significantly more likely to be die within a year than those whose illness was discovered earlier.<br /> </p><p><br /> Harpal Kumar, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "The figure for diagnoses via emergency presentations is way too high.<br /> </p><p><br /> Mr Kumar said better education was needed to help people recognise the symptoms of different types of cancer.<br /> </p><p><br /> The report was compiled by looking at all patients diagnosed with cancer in England in 2007 and examining at what stage their disease was diagnosed.<br /> </p><p><br /> The NCIN found a disparity between different cancer types with only three per cent of skin cancer going undetected until an emergency stage, compared with 58 per cent of brain cancer.<br /> </p><p><br /> Breast cancer was the most common cancer type, representing 13 per cent of the 225,965 diagnoses made that year.<br /> </p>
