400 cancers a week being missed because people are not getting hospital treatment.

A professor at King's College London has warned that there will be more excess cancer deaths over the next 5 years than the number of people who die from coronavirus in the UK due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus lockdown, which is preventing cancer victims from getting treatment.

Richard Sullivan, professor of cancer and global health and director of its Institute of Cancer Policy, said: "The number of deaths due to the disruption of cancer services is likely to outweigh the number of deaths from the coronavirus itself over the next five years."

Many people are avoiding hospitals, partly due to fear of coronavirus and partly due to the NHS implying that people should stay away so as not to burden doctors and nurses.

This means that routine cancer screenings have all but stopped and there will be a massive backlog once normality resumes.

"The cessation and delay of cancer care will cause considerable avoidable suffering," said Sullivan. "Cancer screening services have stopped, which means we will miss our chance to catch many cancers when they are treatable and curable, such as cervical, bowel and breast."

People didn't suddenly stop getting cancer when the coronavirus outbreak started, but now they are not getting treatment.