The Department of Health and Social Care will soon publish the national cancer plan. While more people survive cancer than ever before, progress has slowed over the last decade and England remains behind other comparable countries with working-class communities being failed most of all. This plan will change that.
The provision of cancer services varies significantly across the country. We will work to end the variation and ensure that access to the best cancer diagnosis, treatment and care is possible for everyone.
The national cancer plan will include a set of policies specifically focused on tackling geographic inequalities in cancer care, including:
More cancer care medical training places will be allocated to rural and coastal areas, particularly in areas where there are high numbers of vacancies, or areas with poor performance.
Improved scrutiny and support of cancer services, including increased data transparency on the quality of care and performance to drive up standards across the country. Where people live should not determine whether they get high-quality treatment when they need it.
Patients to get access to cutting-edge early cancer detection technologies regardless of where they live, as NICE begins to assess technology as well as medicines, which, if approved, would be available on the NHS in the same way that already applies to medicines.
Cancer alliances will receive funding and work proactively with local communities and providers to improve early diagnosis rates, including for rarer or less survivable cancers. They will focus on increasing awareness of cancer symptoms, supporting primary care to spot signs of cancer early, and reducing the gap in screening uptake between the most and least deprived areas, with particular efforts to reach ethnic minority and underserved communities.
Further to this, we know that early diagnosis is crucial for improving survival for cancer, for all cancers, including bowel cancer, which is the fourth most common cancer in the UK, impacting 40,907 people in 2023.
Which is why the national cancer plan will include actions to ensure more bowel cancers are caught at an earlier stage, rolling out changes to our bowel cancer screening programmes that are expected to save more than 5000 lives by 2035.
The NHS bowel cancer screening programme offers people aged 50 to 74 screening every two years, faecal immunochemical test kits are sent to people’s homes.
The NHS in England is improving this offer by rolling out increased sensitivity in bowel cancer screening, the programme will lower the threshold from 120 ug/g to 80 ug/g to bring the sensitivity in line with Scotland and Wales. When fully rolled out from 2028, this is expected to catch cancer at an earlier stage for over 600 people per year, treating it faster and saving lives.
Going further, we will roll out letters and invitations on to the bowel cancer screening programme via the app. This will make it easier for individuals to access screening programmes, and give patients control over their health.
The national cancer plan, which will be published shortly, will provide further details of how we will seek to improve early diagnosis of all cancers, and deliver high-quality cancer care to everybody, no matter where they live.
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