MOST cases of breast, bowel or lung cancer among the poorest Scots are not picked up until the disease has spread to other organs, new figures show.

Campaigners said the figures were “especially worrying” as patients diagnosed with stage four cancer are much less likely to survive and face more gruelling treatments and side effects.

Breast, bowel and lung cancer are the most common forms of the disease in Scotland, accounting for 43% of cases, but the latest statistics highlight a gulf in detection rates between the most and least affluent parts of Scotland.

While four in five cases among the wealthiest patients were picked up before stage four in 2016 and 2017 – in most cases at stage two – among the poorest patients, 30.3% were not identified until it was at the most serious, advanced stage.

Research has shown that people from more deprived background are less likely to take part in routine cancer screening, such as attending mammograms or returning bowel screening kits, but shortages of radiologists have also been blamed for delays in patients receiving the results of key diagnostic cancer tests such as CT and MRIs.

It comes as charities warned that progress on improving early detection rates in Scotland “has stalled”.

The Detect Cancer Early (DCE) programme was launched by the Scottish Government in 2012 with a target to increase the proportion of patients diagnosed with breast, lung or bowel cancer at stage one by 25% by the end of 2015.

That aim has yet to be achieved, however, and there are fears that after what has been described as"glacial progress" the figures are now going in the wrong direction.

The latest statistics from ISD Scotland - covering 2016 and 2017 - show the percentage of patients diagnosed at stage one has risen by just 8.4% in six years, compared to the equivalent figures for 2010 and 2011. Previous figures, for 2015 and 2016, had shown a 9.1% improvement.

Janice Preston, who heads up Macmillan Cancer Support in Scotland, said “We are deeply concerned there hasn’t been any improvement in these figures from last year. While the DCE campaign was making slow progress, it was previously going in the right direction.

“The picture in deprived communities is especially worrying, with over 30% of people diagnosed at the latest stage compared to under 20% of those in the least deprived areas. People diagnosed the latest stage are less likely to survive and more likely to face very challenging treatment and severe side effects if they do."

Across the health boards, the percentage of patients whose breast, bowel or lung cancer was detected at stage one ranged from 22.7% in NHS Grampian to 29.2% in NHS Forth Valley.

In Scotland's largest health board, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, it was 24.4%.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman stressed that more than a quarter of all breast, lung and bowel cancers are now detected at stage one, and pointed to a 31% increase in stage one diagnoses of lung cancer among the most deprived patients as signs of progress.

Ms Freeman added: “Screening remains one of the most effective ways to find cancer early and more than £1 million has been committed to health boards and third sector organisations since 2016, through the Scottish Government’s Health Inequalities Fund, to help identify new and innovative ideas to improve screening uptake amongst groups least likely to participate.

“Later this year we will also be launching a new DCE campaign, targeting those in the most deprived areas, to reduce fear around cancer and encourage people to get checked early.

“Overall cancer death rates have dropped by 10.6% over the past 10 years and early detection is vitally important to continuing this trend. We are working to beat cancer, investing more than £100 million in our cancer strategy as well as £14 million earlier this year to support health boards reduce waiting times for endoscopies.”