Planning for the future of cancer

On the 3rd December 2007 the Government published a new five-year strategy for cancer in England, the Cancer Reform Strategy. The strategy set out a range of new measures and announcements across all areas of cancer policy, from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and survivorship.

The Cancer Reform Strategy can be downloaded from the Department of Health website.

Cancer Research UK welcomed the strategy. In particular, is great news that the strategy announced that radiotherapy services will benefit from significant investment. These vital life-saving services offer the possibility of significantly improving survival rates in the UK. Half of all cancer patients receive radiotherapy and this funding should ensure that we have the capacity to deliver consistently across the country, without patients having to wait for long periods for treatment.

We are also greatly encouraged by the announcement that further action on sunbeds is being considered - this is crucial because melanoma is one of the fastest rising cancers in the UK.

Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of cancer and the commitment to go further on tobacco regulation is critical. Half of all smokers eventually die from cancer, or other smoking-related illnesses. And a quarter of smokers die in middle age -between 35 and 69. Any new regulation that helps reduce this and helps more people give up smoking must be welcomed.

We’re very encouraged that the time between receiving a cancer diagnosis and completing treatment is to be speeded up, not just for new drugs, but also for radiotherapy and for all stages of cancer treatment. This step, which will require considerable investment, will maximise survival chances and reduce anxiety for patients. But we need to ensure that the NHS has the extra money needed to meet these targets, particularly in radiotherapy where we know there are significant shortages at present.

We also welcome the commitment to ensuring that all cancer drugs, wherever possible, are assessed by NICE as soon as they are licensed. This will help put an end to the current situation where patients are left in limbo waiting many months, or even years, to find out if new treatments are to become available on the NHS.

Cancer Research UK was one of the many expert groups involved in developing the strategy so we look forward to working with the NHS to deliver these recommendations. It’s vital that these proposals are followed through if we’re to become among the best in the world at treating cancer.

The Scottish Government has unveiled a new cancer strategy, Better Cancer Care: An Action Plan, detailing what they will do to improve services for cancer patients. Cancer Research UK welcomes the publication of this action plan which demonstrates a real commitment from the Scottish Government to improving cancer services across the country. This document is an important step towards our shared goal of improving cancer services for all.

Better Cancer Care can be downloaded from the Scottish Government website.

Smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of cancer in Scotland and we are pleased to see further commitments to the ongoing drive to reduce smoking levels, and particularly for further legislative controls on the sale and display of tobacco. Cancer screening saves lives. The breast, cervical and bowel cancer screening programmes play a vital role in early detection and treatment and continued investment and support for their development is incredibly important. However, people must be encouraged to attend for screening when they are invited, particularly those groups with lower uptake levels.

We know that waiting for cancer treatment to start can be a very distressing time, so we are delighted to see new commitments to reduce waiting times for cancer treatment to 31 days, and to include patients referred from screening services in this target. Further to this, the focus on early detection and diagnosis is welcome as we know that we need to diagnose more cancers earlier. In terms of cancer treatment, the plans to look into expanding radiotherapy and improving access to new cancer medicines should also help improve cancer survival rates.

We are also pleased to see a clear focus on research. Cancer Research UK is working with the Scottish Government to develop Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres across Scotland, and this, along with challenging goals relating to clinical trials recruitment and under-represented groups, will have a significant impact on the development of important new treatments and their use in clinical practice. However we note with concern the widening inequalities gap in Scotland and urge the Scottish Government to redouble its efforts to reduce inequalities in cancer incidence and mortality.

Many of the commitments in the plan will improve survival chances and reduce anxiety for patients. But the NHS must have the extra money needed to meet these goals, and so further details of the specific investment required to implement the plan are essential.

Cancer Research UK is looking forward to working with the new Scottish Cancer Taskforce to deliver on these commitments and develop a stronger approach to preventing cancer, research new ways of detecting and treating the disease, and to improve the quality of care provided to patients.

In July 2008 the Welsh Assembly Government published a new strategic framework for cancer in Wales, entitled Designed to Tackle Cancer. This is the follow-up to the previous Designed to Tackle Cancer policy statement in 2006 and goes into considerably more depth about how the Assembly Government will tackle the cancer challenge in Wales. 

Cancer Research UK and our charity partners in the Wales Cancer Alliance welcomed the document, particularly the Welsh Assembly Government's commitment to improve access to screening for hard-to-reach groups and to improve prevention and early detection for cancer. The clear timescales and areas of responsibility set out within the document are positive and will help to ensure that the policies are turned into action. Cancer Research UK look forward to working with the Welsh Assembly Government to ensure that these commitments are delivered.

For more information please click here.

In Northern Ireland, the Chief Medical Officer has asked the Northern Ireland Cancer Network (NICaN) to lead in developing service frameworks for Cancer Prevention, Treatment and Care. The frameworks will include explicit standards underpinned by evidence and will set targets and specific timeframes.

Cancer Research UK is working in partnership with over 30 other national cancer charities in a coalition called the Cancer Campaigning Group to keep cancer high on the political agenda. For more information visit the Cancer Campaigning Group website.

On 24th August 2006, the health think-tank the King’s Fund published a report commissioned by Cancer Research UK on the future of cancer services.

Called 'Future Trends and Challenges for Cancer Services in England: A review of literature and policy', the report uses a literature review and interviews with ten experts on different aspects of cancer to investigate the subject. It aims to stimulate debate about the next steps for cancer services in England.

The paper was written independently of Cancer Research UK, and can be downloaded free of charge from the King's Fund website.