Cancer patients are missing out on benefits worth more than £200 million a year because of a "scandalous' failure to inform them of their entitlements, an influential House of Commons committee revealed on Wednesday.

And the Health Select Committee"s report on cancer care also highlighted the Cinderella status of prostate cancer, which is regarded as a lower priority for the NHS than other forms of the disease, even though it kills 10,000 men a year.

It was 'entirely unacceptable' that prostate cancer patients received 'inequitable' treatment compared with those suffering from the other common cancers - of the breast, lung and bowel said the cross-party committee's chairman Edward Leigh.