England’s ambitious cancer plan

Three-quarters of people diagnosed with cancer will survive for five years or more by 2035, if a new national cancer plan for NHS England meets its target.

A person is diagnosed with cancer in the UK at least every 75 seconds, according to cancer charity Macmillan, so the plan announced by the government this week will impact millions.

What is the plan?

England’s first national cancer plan was published in 2000. It introduced targets for waiting times, but those have been missed for more than a decade. Ahead of unveiling the new scheme, ministers have been studying the situation and progress in Denmark. In 2000, both countries had similar survival rates, but Denmark has since “leapfrogged ahead, outperforming the UK in survival rates for all but one major cancers”, said The Times.

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The result is a 10-year strategy for the UK covering cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and research. Some 11,000 people responded to the call for evidence, offering “stories of resilience against the odds” and “personal battles against a healthcare system buckling under the cancer burden”, said health correspondent Ashish Joshi on Sky News.

How will it improve outcomes?

If the plan hits its targets, by 2035, three out of four people diagnosed with the disease will be “living well” with their cancer under control or cancer-free within five years of diagnosis. The Department of Health said this would represent the fastest rate of improvement in cancer outcomes this century, and would translate to 320,000 more lives saved over the lifetime of the plan.

It also pledges that NHS England will meet all its cancer waiting-time targets by 2029. There will be a major expansion in robot-assisted surgery, with the number of such procedures increasing from 70,000 currently to half a million by 2035, and faster diagnostic tests to shorten delays in diagnosis and treatment, with community-based diagnostic centres operating 12 hours a day, seven days a week where possible.

The plan also aims to cover travel costs for people seeking treatment across the country, so families do not have to face the financial burden of transportation to access the most appropriate treatment.

What has the reaction been?

Outcomes in England have “lagged behind comparable countries for decades”, said Cancer Research UK, so it’s positive to see improving survival rates at “the centre of the plan”. However, meeting such ambitious targets will require “much faster progress” alongside additional detail on the implementation of the commitments made, where responsibilities will lie, and “whether bold promises will be matched with the resources required”.

The promise that the national cancer plan will “revolutionise the way we treat cancer” is both “bold and ambitious”, said Joshi on Sky News, but then the strategy “cannot afford to be anything else”.