A National Cancer Plan for England “that will revolutionise the way we treat cancer”. It is a bold and ambitious claim to make, but this strategy cannot afford to be anything else.
Cancer destroys far too many lives. According to the charity Macmillan, someone in the UK is diagnosed with the disease at least every 75 seconds. That is a grim statistic.
On Wednesday, the government will publish a new 10-year plan to tackle it, pledging that more people will survive a diagnosis in the coming years.
This cancer plan says it puts “patients at the very heart of it”. Eleven thousand people responded to the call for evidence: stories of resilience against the odds, personal battles against a healthcare system buckling under the cancer burden.
The metrics are quantifiable. In around 10 years time, three out of four people diagnosed with cancer will be living well or cured from cancer within five years of their diagnosis.
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According to the Department of Health, 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.
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The document will also pledge that the NHS will meet all its cancer waiting time targets by 2029, and is set to be joined with other announcements, including a big expansion in robot-assisted surgery and faster diagnostic tests to cut down delays in cancer diagnosis and treatment.
This is achievable. But it will take commitment and investment.
The Danes have done it. They have had five successive national cancer plans.
Our health ministers have been studying their blueprint very carefully to apply the most successful interventions into our own plan.
Smaller organisations working at a local level will be empowered and financed to support their own communities. This is practical and sensible.
Some £6bn has been earmarked for capital investment to invest in the latest technology, AI and robotic surgery to identify and treat cancer quickly.
Cancer is indiscriminate. So children and young people will, for the first time, be given a dedicated chapter in this plan to meet their own special needs.
According to the latest data from the World Health Organization, four in 10 cancer cases are preventable.
It has examined 30 preventable causes, including tobacco, alcohol, high body mass index, physical inactivity, air pollution, ultraviolet radiation, and, for the first time, nine cancer-causing infections.
This area will come under renewed focus after the government’s success in introducing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to ensure an entirely smoke-free generation.
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Community Diagnostic Centres easily accessible with a high street presence, and open for days and hours that suit ordinary people, will speed up diagnoses.
And importantly, as science makes great strides in extending life, survivors must not be left alone to face the “cancer cliff edge”, the feeling of abandonment after their cancer treatment has finished.
Survivorship is as important as early diagnosis.
All of this is to be welcomed and applauded, but to move to this level will need a big step change.
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Many hospitals still cannot share imaging or pathology results in a timely way due to old technology holding them back.
And some estates are not fit for purpose, let alone to house a specialist cancer ward.
I have stood under gaping ceiling holes where rain pours through into overflowing buckets, feet away from patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Cancer patients have been failed for far too long.
