Reponse to Gordon Brown's speech

Cancer Research UK's response to the Prime Minister's announcement of changes to cancer services.

Harpal Kumar, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: "We welcome an extension of the national screening programmes and reductions in waiting times for referral. These will have a significant impact on survival from cancer, and we are delighted that the Government is responding to many of the calls we have been making in our Screening Matters campaign over the last few months.

"We hope that these announcements are just a forerunner to a series of other plans that the Government will soon announce as part of the Cancer Reform Strategy. It is critical that the Government also seeks to address the outlook for patients with less common cancers and those with poor survival outcomes. We also hope that the Government makes an urgent and substantial commitment to upgrading and investing in radiotherapy capacity in the UK."

ENDS

Notes to editor:

Screening Matters is Cancer Research UK's new campaign calling on politicians to get more people into cancer screening programmes across the UK and to make sure the programmes are as good as they can be. The campaign also calls on the public to attend screening when invited, and encourage friends and family to do the same.

www.cancercampaigns.org.uk

For media enquiries contact the Cancer Research UK press office on 020 7061 8300, or the out of hours duty press officer on 07050 264059.

24 September 2007