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The Government has announced a landmark National Cancer Plan aimed at delivering faster diagnoses, quicker treatment and stronger long-term support for cancer patients across England.
For the first time, the NHS will commit to ensuring that three in four people diagnosed with cancer from 2035 onwards are either cancer-free or living well five years after diagnosis. This marks the fastest projected improvement in cancer outcomes this century and could translate to 320,000 additional lives saved over the plan’s lifetime.
The NHS has not met its key performance target — that 85% of patients begin treatment within 62 days of referral — since 2014. Under the new plan, all three cancer waiting time standards are expected to be met by March 2029, with hundreds of thousands more patients receiving timely care.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting described the strategy as an opportunity to harness advances in medical science and technology to transform patient outcomes.
Key reforms within the plan
The strategy outlines sweeping changes across diagnosis and treatment, including:
- £2.3 billion investment in diagnostics, delivering 9.5 million additional tests by 2029 through expanded scanners, digital systems and automation. Community diagnostic centres will operate extended hours, up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Expansion of robot-assisted surgery, increasing procedures from 70,000 annually to 500,000 by 2035 to reduce complications and free hospital capacity.
- Greater use of specialist cancer centres, particularly for rarer cancers, bringing multidisciplinary expertise together to determine optimal treatment pathways.
- Expanded genomic testing, offering DNA analysis to every eligible patient to support more personalised treatment decisions.
- Improved appointment access technology, enabling patients to book the earliest available test across NHS providers in their local area.
The government also announced an AI pilot programme designed to improve early detection of hard-to-reach lung cancers, alongside a new employer partnership scheme to support working-age cancer patients during and after treatment.
Currently, around 60% of patients survive five years or more following diagnosis, with approximately 2.4 million people living after a cancer diagnosis. The plan builds on recent progress, including 213,000 additional cases diagnosed or ruled out on time over the past year and the opening of 170 community diagnostic centres nationwide.
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