Warning about cancer that ‘hides in plain sight’ and killed 249 people in the North East in just one year

A leading cancer charity has warned that a shocking form of cancer “hides in plain sight”, can be mistaken for heartburn, and it killed almost 250 people in the North East in a single year.

Oesophageal cancer kills around 8,000 people a year, and during February – which is Oesophageal Cancer Awareness month – charity Heartburn Cancer UK is urging people to learn the signs and said 59% of deaths due to the illness are preventable. According to Office for National Statistics figures for the North East’s seven local authorities, in 2022, 249 people died due to oesophageal cancer.




That breaks down as 73 in County Durham, 19 in Newcastle, 36 in Gateshead, 25 in North Tyneside, 41 in Northumberland, 22 in South Tyneside and 33 in Sunderland. Heartburn Cancer UK, set up by a woman who lost her husband to the illness, is warning that people should take persistent heartburn more seriously.

The charity has also called for the NHS to bring in a “simple capsule sponge test” which could diagnose cases sooner. It is the seventh most deadly cancer in general, and fourth most deadly in men.

Mimi McCord, the founder and chair of Heartburn Cancer UK, said: “Cancer of the oesophagus is a killer that can hide in plain sight. People don’t always realise it, but not all heartburn is harmless. While they keep on treating the symptoms, the underlying cause might be killing them.

“Persistent heartburn can be both a symptom and a cause of cancer. Acid leaking from the stomach causes the pain that we recognise as heartburn. This same acid is the thing that can cause changes in the cells in the oesophagus, which can turn into cancer or a pre-cancerous condition called Barrett’s oesophagus.”

Mimi said that persistent heartburn could be the sign of something seriously wrong, and rather than continuingly “masking it” with over-the-counter drugs, it was important to get checked our properly. The charity shared that the risk of developing the most common type of oesophageal cancer in the UK, is 7.4 times higher in people who have persistent heartburn-type symptoms daily.

There are NHS trials of a new test to diagnose the cancer – which can be carried out in a GP surgery – but the charity wants this to be rolled out widely., especially as early diagnose is vital. Mimi said delays were “simply not good enough” and added: “We have a test. We know it works. People are dying while we wait to make it widely available.”

The capsule sponge test, previously known as cytosponge, releases a sponge to collect cells from the oesophagus. It can be used to detect abnormalities that form as part of a condition known as Barrett’s oesophagus, which makes a person more likely to develop oesophageal cancer.

Cancer Research UK is working with the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) on the BEST4 trial, which will recruit 120,000 people in a bid to explore if the capsule sponge test can reduce deaths from oesophageal cancer.


A spokesperson for NHS spending watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), said: “Our guideline committee identified cytosponge as a tool which could benefit the NHS for diagnosing dysplasia and cancer, but the quality of the evidence was not sufficient to support its use at present.

“We are aware of two ongoing trials and are hopeful they could produce the evidence required to fully appraise the clinical and cost effectiveness of this potentially useful tool.”

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