Briefing: radiotherapy

Radiotherapy is a key aspect of cancer care. Around a half of all cancer patients should have some form of radiotherapy as part of their treatment and it is estimated to contribute to 40 per cent of cases where cancer is cured. In 2005, more than half of patients in England and three quarters of patients in Wales had to wait for more than four weeks for their post-operative radiotherapy.

While we have seen positive improvements in the service in recent years, we want the UK Governments to take urgent action to increase capacity in radiotherapy in order to meet future demand. This is essential if we are to ensure that all cancer patients have access to radiotherapy services that are equal to the best in Europe.

Radiotherapy is a complex process, involving a number of appointments and considerable multi-disciplinary treatment planning. The time taken for a patient to progress from a decision to treat to their first radiotherapy appointment depends on factors including adequate capacity, and the availability of all relevant staff, both within the radiotherapy service and those services aligned to radiotherapy.

Cancer Research UK has commissioned a report to provide a comparison of how radiotherapy services are being developed across the UK, where change is taking place within radiotherapy services, and those areas where improvement has been slow.

This work is intended to shed light on the reasons behind variations in access to radiotherapy and how well each of the UK nations are planning the introduction of new technology and future workforce needs.

 

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