PATIENTS with cancer nearing the end of their lives are facing stark racial inequalities in care, a study suggests.

Researchers found that many cancer patients from black, south Asian, mixed and other ethnic backgrounds are living with pain as they are not given the same pain-relief treatments as their white peers.

And this group are far more likely to end up in A&E in their final days and weeks compared with those given the pain relief, experts found.

Researchers from Hull York Medical School, along with colleagues from King’s College London and Cambridge University, examined data on more than 230,000 adults diagnosed with cancer in England between 2011 and 2021.

They examined prescriptions of morphine, emergency department visits and hospital admissions in the last three months of life.

Their study, published in the British Journal of Cancer, found that prescription rates were highest among white patients, with  rates “significantly lower” among smaller ethnic groups, the research team reported.

Black Activists Rising Against Cuts co-founder Zita Holbourne told the Morning Star: “It’s unacceptable to treat black and brown people with cancer in this way.

“It indicates deep-rooted racist ideas about black and brown people who have been racialised … through an institutionally racist healthcare sector— despite the UK being dependent on migrant labour in order for the NHS to function, including Windrush generation nurses.

“Decolonisation as well as urgent action to tackle structural racism in healthcare is an urgent necessity.”

Anthony Cunliffe, national lead medical adviser at Macmillan Cancer Support, called the findings deeply concerning, adding: “Pain control is the cornerstone of compassionate care, and no-one should be left without appropriate pain relief at the end of life.”