Much of the success of the government’s National Cancer Plan will come down to whether we have the research base, workforce and patient support needed to deliver lasting change, sectoral experts tell Spotlight.
As survival rates improve, so too must quality of life
Dame Laura Lee – Chief executive, Maggie’s
The plan pledges that three-quarters of people diagnosed with cancer from 2035 will be cancer-free or living well after five years. The government has yet to explain exactly how it will deliver this most significant test of its ambition.
Sixty per cent of people are now surviving for five or more years after a diagnosis, but over six million new cancer cases are predicted by 2040. More people recovering from cancer or living for years with a diagnosis means the demand for practical and emotional support to help them live well will only grow – and access to support is already falling short.
Cancer affects every aspect of a person’s life, from family to finances, and the challenges don’t end when treatment finishes. At Magggie’s, we believe everyone can live full lives and remain productive members of society, with and beyond cancer, but they need access to expert and individualised support in order to do so.
Our 27 NHS cancer support centres around the UK help people get ready for treatment and make healthy changes to their diet and lifestyle, offer advice on benefits, provide psychological care and facilitate peer support groups. Work can also play an important role in living well with and beyond cancer.
Ensuring employers have guidance on how to support colleagues facing cancer or returning to work after treatment is a key element of what we do and has proven benefits to the economy and the workforce. We are also saving the NHS millions each year, reducing the need for medical interventions and cutting appointment times with GPs and oncologists.
The government must work with organisations like ours to ensure nobody faces cancer alone. A decade from now, the biggest question will be: are people truly living well with cancer? The government must take concrete action to ensure the answer is a resounding “yes”.
Success depends on the skills needed to deliver it
Dr Nicky Thorp – Vice-president for clinical oncology, The Royal College of Radiologists
The National Cancer Plan is just that – a plan. It is a good statement of intent, but the real test will be how the government secures the skills needed to deliver it.
Demand for cancer care is growing faster than the workforce can keep up with. While change is needed to help staff become more productive, the biggest challenge is that we simply don’t have enough doctors, resulting in delayed scan results, diagnosis and treatment. This has severe consequences. Each month’s delay to starting cancer treatment can increase the risk of death by around 10 per cent. The plan rightly aims to ramp up screening to spot cancer earlier, but without enough doctors, this could increase backlogs and delays.
The NHS 10 Year Workforce Plan, expected this summer, must back up the National Cancer Plan’s promises with workforce.
Successive governments’ failure to train up enough doctors means England currently has 30 per cent (1,670) fewer clinical radiologists and 15 per cent (158) fewer clinical oncologists than it needs. Despite this, recruitment freezes blocking hospitals from hiring these doctors have doubled in a year, further undermining ambitions to improve cancer care.
The NHS is splurging record sums on temporary solutions, including outsourcing, to fill the workforce gap. Investing in training up 50 per cent more radiologists and clinical oncologists instead would save the UK half a billion pounds (£480m) and supply almost all the doctors we need after ten years.
The government has a simple choice to make – treat the symptom and continue to haemorrhage money on short-term fixes, or treat the cause and futureproof cancer services by investing in people.
Do not take our research ecosystem for granted
Professor Kristian Helin – Chief executive, The Institute of Cancer Research
Research is the engine of progress against cancer. The government is right to recognise its importance in the new plan.
We are in the “foothills of an unprecedented revolution in science and technology” and nowhere is that clearer than in cancer research – where new discoveries are transforming diagnosis and treatment.
However, scientific ambition alone won’t deliver breakthroughs. Research does not happen in isolation: it depends on a strong life sciences and higher education ecosystem, supported by world-class facilities, sustainable funding and access to global talent. If the UK is to maintain its position as a scientific leader, that ecosystem must be protected – not taken for granted.
Universities and research institutes sit at the centre of this effort, delivering most of the UK’s cancer research in partnership with government, industry and charities. Yet higher education is under severe financial pressure, with 45 per cent of universities in England expecting to run a deficit this year. A major challenge is the widening gap between the true cost of research and the value of the grants universities receive to conduct it.
Breakthroughs like abiraterone – the ICR-discovered drug that transformed prostate cancer treatment – demonstrate what UK science can achieve. But such breakthroughs rest on decades of stable, well-funded discovery science. Without a sustainable research ecosystem, future advances of this kind will not be possible.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting has described cancer as the canary in the coalmine for the NHS. The same is true for our universities and research institutes. Their financial health is the litmus test for the UK’s scientific future. Without them, the National Cancer Plan risks becoming an aspiration rather than a deliverable strategy.
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