'Radiotherapy is the closest thing to a silver bullet'

Spend more on cost-effective treatment, say MPs

- Martyn Brown

JUST £200million is enough to replace the UK's out-of-date radiotherapy machines and help 50,000 cancer patients every year, MPs said.

The investment would save countless lives, slash treatment and waiting times, helping to ease the NHS cancer backlog, they said.

MPS used a key parliamentary debate to press the need for more funding for radiotherapy, which is needed in four out of 10 cancer cures.

International recommendations state that 53 to 60 per cent of cancer patients should receive the treatment.

But in the UK only 27 per cent got it in 2019, largely due to decades of underinvestment.

Conservative MP Selaine Saxby called for more funding. She said: "Radiotherapy is the closest thing we have to a silver bullet.