ADVANCES in cancer treatment which allow people to survive the disease for longer must be matched by an increase in specialist staff, a leading Glasgow oncologist has warned.

Dr David Dodds said patients were living longer thanks to “world-class radiology” and breakthrough cancer drugs, but stressed that staffing levels had lagged behind.

Dr Dodds, the former clinical director of the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre, said he was optimistic that new innovations, especially in relation to personalised medicine and immunotherapy, would continue to improve and extend survival rates from cancer.

Clinical radiologists have the highest vacancy rate of any medical specialism, with 14 per cent of post unfilled. Waiting times for cancer tests and treatment have also been increasing steadily since 2012 amid increasing demand.

Dr Dodds said: “The major difference in cancer care over the last 10 to 15 years has been a move from a condition that used to be regarded as terminal to one which can be controllable for a large period of time.

“It’s moving out of the realms of an acute illness to one of a chronic condition which can be managed and maintained in some patients for a large number of years.

“In the past, if I had metastatic cancer I would have maybe six or seven shots of chemotherapy and that would be it.

“But with the new treatments, especially immunotherapies, they’re given until disease progression.

“That creates a huge strain on the existing resource.

“We need more of everything - oncologists, cancer nurses, radiologists - in order to cope. The numbers that are passing through our day-case units in our outpatient departments are increasing logarithmically right now. That’s great for patients, but it’s not great for staff because staff numbers have not increased in a commensurate way.”

Dr Dodds, who is now the chief of medicine for regional services in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, was speaking ahead of a new three-part BBC Scotland series ‘The Cancer Hospital’ which goes behind the scenes at the Beatson.