Drive to survive

Health Secretary unveils plan to transform cancer outcomes for patients in England

- BY MARTIN BAGOT Health and Science Editor

WES Streeting has vowed to transform cancer survival rates in England.

The Health Secretary - himself a cancer survivor - said a new National Cancer Plan will result in 75% of patients being cured or "living well" with the disease five years after diagnosis.

With survival rates in England currently lagging behind much of Europe, the government is promising the fastest rate of improvement in outcomes this century.

It says its plan will mean 320,000 more lives saved by 2035.

Mr Streeting, who had a kidney cancer removed using state-ofthe-art robot surgery, has vowed to expand its use across the NHS as well as catching more tumours early by expanding community diagnostic centres.

For some cancer types, survival rates in England trail behind even poorer countries such as Croatia.

Poland and Romania. The UK fell further behind during a decadelong NHS funding squeeze under the Tories, which added entrenched lifestyle risk factors such as high rates of obesity and excessive alcohol consumption.

A report by Macmillan Cancer Support showed in 2024 that survival rates in Britain lagged 25 years behind some of the best performing European nations.

Five-year survival rates for cancers of the prostate, cervix and colon were only just reaching levels that countries such as Denmark and Sweden achieved around the turn of the century.