'It doesn't look positive': what Lancashire needs to improve about cancer diagnosis

Fewer cancers are diagnosed before they start to spread in Lancashire and South Cumbria than across most other parts of England.

- by Paul Faulkner

Figures presented to a meeting of the region's integrated care board (ICB) reveal that just 54.2 per cent of patients currently receive their cancer diagnosis while it is still at an early stage.

The statistic puts the area in the bottom quartile of NHS performance nationwide for identifying cancer at stages 1 and 2.

Data published back in January showed that early diagnosis across England as a whole - of the 13 most common types of cancer - had reached its highest ever level.

First or second stage diagnosis hit 58.2 percent between September 2023 and August 2024.

A report presented to the ICB meeting noted that Lancashire and South Cumbria had improved at a faster rate than the national average over the last 12 months, but acknowledged: "We still have too many patients being diagnosed with late-stage cancers."