Shaping the national cancer plan

Q: How to respond

You can respond using the online survey . The call for evidence runs for 12 weeks and closes at 11:59pm on 29 April 2025. If you responded to the previous 10-year cancer plan call for evidence, you do not need to resubmit your response - DHSC has captured those contributions already. However, this is an opportunity to provide any further suggestions you have about priorities, building on the evidence submitted and highlighting any new developments. If you have any queries about this call for evidence, or if you need an alternative format, please email cancer-callforevidence@dhsc.gov.uk .

Question 1

Summary

Accepted Answer

This call for evidence will inform the development of the government’s national cancer plan for England. Rather than a formal consultation on specific proposals, it constitutes a request for expert ideas and evidence that the government can build on.

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) is seeking your views and ideas on the contents of the plan in order to improve outcomes and meet the health mission goal to reduce lives lost to the biggest killers. The call for evidence includes questions on:

prevention
access
early diagnosis
treatment
living with and beyond cancer
research and development

The national cancer plan will take forward the reforms to be set out by the 10 Year Health Plan and our approach to cancer will be based on the shifts set out in it. The national cancer plan will also use submissions to the Change NHS website that are about cancer.

The national cancer plan will also look at how we can maximise our impact through the most up-to-date technology and innovations. We will build on successful NHS initiatives such as the cancer vaccine launch pad, so that patients have the best chance of beating cancer.

Following on from the elective reform plan, we will put patients at the centre of the national cancer plan. We will empower patients by giving them more control over their own care and improve communications so that patients can understand and make decisions about their diagnosis, treatment and care.

This call for evidence follows on from the 10-year cancer plan call for evidence in 2022 and the major conditions strategy call for evidence. DHSC has published a summary of the submissions to the 10-year cancer plan call for evidence. We will consider those previous responses to inform the development of the national cancer plan. If you have contributed to these previous calls for evidence, you may wish to consider what has changed since your previous submissions and what additional comments you would like to add.

Question 2

Introduction

Accepted Answer

The government’s mission to build an NHS fit for the future starts with tackling waiting lists. As highlighted in the Plan for Change, the government will make progress towards meeting NHS performance standards and improving access to services. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer, in line with the government’s health mission goal to reduce lives lost to the biggest killers. The national cancer plan will set out how we achieve this goal in line with the shifts and reforms set out by the 10 Year Health Plan.

Cancer affects 1 in 2 people during their lifetime and record numbers of people are being diagnosed and treated in the UK. The latest published data (November 2024) shows that over 3.1 million people were investigated for suspected cancer and 355,935 people received their first cancer treatment in the previous 12 months. Cancer activity therefore represents a significant proportion of overall NHS elective activity, so responding to this demand in a way that best suits patients is crucial.

The population is ageing and the risk of cancer generally increases with age. More than three-quarters of all people diagnosed with cancer in the UK are 60 and over. Increases and decreases in cancer incidences among different age groups for specific cancers can also be attributed to:

patterns of lifestyle
the prevalence of infectious diseases
environmental factors

Despite recent improvements in cancer waiting times, many cancer patients are waiting too long for a diagnosis and treatment. Lord Darzi’s independent investigation of the NHS in England has set out the scale of the challenges that the government faces in fixing the National Health Service, and the need to improve cancer waiting time performance and cancer survival.

At the same time, Lord Darzi pointed to the NHS’s success in delivering targeted lung health checks, which are transforming the early diagnosis of lung cancer in disadvantaged communities, which he described as a sign of hope.

Cancer survival in the UK is at the highest it has ever been and 10-year survival for all cancers combined has doubled since the early 1970s. However, survival and mortality rates are worse than in many other comparable countries and this has to change.

Early diagnosis remains critical for improving survival and is a priority for the NHS. Record improvements to early diagnosis have been led by the NHS’s early diagnosis programme. This includes the roll-out of the lung cancer screening programme (previously called targeted lung health checks), which has diagnosed more than 5,000 lung cancers, three-quarters of which are at an early stage.

Cancer Research UK (CRUK) forecasts cancer demand to rise, with half a million new cancer cases each year expected by 2040. The government is taking action to manage this rising incidence, bring down waiting lists and improve outcomes through this national cancer plan.

Question 3

The national cancer plan

Accepted Answer

The government has set out an ambitious programme of reform for the NHS. The health mission has set the clear goals of:

an NHS that is there when people need it
fewer lives lost to the biggest killers
a fairer Britain where everyone lives well for longer

To deliver this vision, the 10 Year Health Plan will fundamentally reform the NHS through 3 shifts:

from sickness to prevention
from hospital to community
from analogue to digital

The national cancer plan will be part of this programme of reform, aiming to reduce lives lost to cancer, one of the biggest killers, and to deliver improved care and patient experience through the 3 shifts.

We know that tight budgets mean that reform needs to do a lot more heavy lifting and the national cancer plan will need to ensure that every pound of taxpayers’ money is spent as effectively as possible. We will ensure that our approach will make NHS cancer care more efficient.

The national cancer plan will include further details on how the government and the NHS will:

go further to prevent cancer
improve outcomes for cancer patients
speed up diagnosis and treatment
ensure patients have access to the latest treatments, digital tools and technology
support patients to live with and beyond cancer, with care closer to home
bring this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world

Areas of focus

The national cancer plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. The plan seeks to ensure we lead the world in clinical trials and that innovative, life-saving treatments are accessible to NHS patients.

Prevention

Around 40% of cancers are currently preventable, meaning thousands of lives can potentially be saved by taking proactive measures to prevent cancer developing. The most significant risk factors include:

alcohol
tobacco
obesity
physical inactivity
UV radiation
air pollution

The 10 Year Health Plan will set out how the NHS will move from sickness to prevention. The national cancer plan will consider where specific action would be most effective to reduce cancer mortality.

Early diagnosis

If cancer cannot be prevented, early diagnosis is the best tool to beat it. Cancers diagnosed in earlier stages (stages 1 and 2) can be treated more effectively and generally have higher survival rates than cancers diagnosed at later stages. Access to diagnostics will be improved by the ongoing shift from hospital to community, through community diagnostic centres and at-home testing.

Methods to improve early diagnosis can include:

modernising cancer screening and increasing uptake
improving awareness of cancer symptoms, removing barriers to seeking help and encouraging people to seek help quickly
developing targeted interventions including case finding to identify patients most at risk of certain cancers
piloting and using innovative diagnostic technologies

Improving patient pathways

Reducing barriers of entry to care and improving the efficiency of patient pathways are essential to improving cancer outcomes and experiences. The national cancer plan will follow the 10 Year Health Plan in exploring how pathways, including some treatment, can move from hospital to community. The plan will set out ways to support the system to meet the 3 Cancer Waiting Time (CWT) standards, which will ensure that patients are diagnosed and treated faster.

The CWT standards are:

75% of patients urgently referred for suspected cancer receive a diagnosis of cancer or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral
96% of patients receive treatment within 31 days of a decision to treat
85% of patients receive treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral for suspected cancer from a GP or a screening programme

Treatment

The plan will seek to ensure that high quality care is available to patients across the country. This will build on the current national cancer audits, which are seeking to promote best practice and aim to reduce inequalities in access to or quality of treatment.

Living with and beyond cancer

It is essential that the needs of cancer patients are central to the plan. The number of people surviving cancer continues to increase. Many people are also living with other conditions alongside managing the physical and psychosocial effects of cancer and its treatment. Those impacts can be significant and last for many years and so cancer can be a chronic condition and requires a focus on personalised care to improve quality of life.

The plan will aim to improve how the physical and psychosocial needs of people with cancer can be met. It will address how the experience of care can be improved for those diagnosed, treated and living with and beyond cancer.

Research and innovation

The plan will continue to maximise the access to and the impact of clinical trials in diagnostics and treatments, building on the success of projects such as the NHS cancer vaccine launch pad. The plan will also consider the ways that we can accelerate the uptake of innovative, life-saving treatments so all NHS patients can benefit.

Tackling health inequalities

Health inequalities in cancer contribute to an unacceptable variation in life expectancy and outcomes. The government recognises that there are particular challenges for several different populations, particularly for people living in the most deprived areas of the country. Research from Cancer Research UK has suggested that more than 33,000 cancer cases each year across the UK are attributable to deprivation, largely due to preventable causes.

While health inequalities have been reduced by initiatives such as the lung cancer screening programme, the government knows that more needs to be done. Reducing inequalities is a priority for the national cancer plan, which will look at improvements needed across different cancer types to reduce disparities in cancer survival.

Improving outcomes for rarer cancers

Finally, the national cancer plan will seek to improve outcomes for those diagnosed with rarer and less common cancers and for cancer in children and young people. It will foster opportunities for UK researchers to collaborate on international cancer research. This is particularly important for areas where affected populations are small, such as with rare cancers.

The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce

In February 2024, the government announced a Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce to bring together experts to make progress on tackling cancer in children and young people. The Children and Young People Cancer Taskforce will be relaunched in 2025, alongside the national cancer plan, to identify ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for children and young people with cancer.

While there will not be a separate call for evidence for children and young people’s cancers, relevant submissions to this call for evidence will be referred to the taskforce. Through its work we will ensure that the unique needs of this specific patient group, their families and carers are carefully considered in the plan.

Question 4

Call for evidence questions

Accepted Answer

About you

Questions for individuals only

Question

Do you have personal experience of cancer or of cancer services? (Select all that apply)

No
Yes, as a patient
Yes, as a carer
Yes, as an NHS staff member
Yes, as a researcher
Yes, in another capacity (please specify)
Prefer not to say

Question

If you answered that you have experience as a patient, have you received cancer treatment? (Select all that apply)

I’m waiting to start treatment
I’m currently receiving treatment
I received treatment in the last year
I received treatment in the last 5 years
I received treatment more than 5 years ago
No, I have not received cancer treatment
Prefer not to say

Question

If you answered that you are a carer, has the person you care for received cancer treatment? (Select all that apply)

They are waiting to start treatment
They are currently receiving treatment
They received treatment in the last year
They received treatment in the last 5 years
They received treatment more than 5 years ago
No, they have not received cancer treatment
Prefer not to say

Prevention and awareness

Question

Which cancer risk factors should the government and the NHS focus on to improve prevention? (Select the 3 most important risk factors)

Alcohol
Tobacco
Obesity
Physical inactivity
UV radiation
Air pollution
I don’t know
Other (please specify)