Any suggestion that age should be a determining factor when a patient is being assessed for the level of cancer treatment they will receive must be resisted strongly.

With life expectancy rising significantly, and people now being far more active in their senior years, this idea is something that has to be vigorously opposed.

Macmillan Cancer Support, though, say there are indications to suggest that too many people are being judged on the date of their birth rather than how fit and healthy they are.

And they say figures showing that the UK has a lower survival rate among the over-65s than much of the rest of Europe for many common cancers would seem to support their concerns.

This newspaper has campaigned strongly through our With Respect campaign to ensure the older members of our society are treated fairly and with dignity, and any suggestion that types of medical treatment are curtailed because of a patient’s age flies in the face of all we have fought for.

Obviously if medical examination shows a patient is too sickly or frail to undergo intensive treatment, that is a very different matter, but we would certainly back the view of Macmillan chief executive Ciaran Devane, who says it is clearly wrong to write people off as ‘too old’ for treatment.

Research clearly shows that with proper assessment and appropriate treatment, many older cancer patients can live for many more years and can even be cured.

If these barriers to getting treatment do exist – and it has to be said, at local level, the indications are it is not an issue – it is time they were pulled down and everyone treated on an equal footing, regardless of how old they are.