Major cancer prevention & detection programme launched

By The Press Association12th January 2015News EnglandCancer, News England, NHS

Health chiefs today launched a major initiative designed to improve prevention, detection and treatment of cancer.

NHS England announced an independent task force which will develop a five-year action plan for cancer services to improve survival rates and save thousands of lives.

It also launched a new programme to test ways of diagnosing cancer more quickly at more than 60 sites across the country, and committed a further £15 million over three years to evaluate and treat patients with a new type of radiotherapy.

More than one in three people in the UK develop cancer and half will now live for at least 10 years – 40 years ago, average survival was just one year.

But for some cancers patients are being diagnosed late, so some survival rates are below the European average.

The task force, chaired by Cancer Research UK chief executive Harpal Kumar, has been asked to focus particularly on better prevention, swifter diagnosis, and better treatment, care and aftercare.

Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We must never rest in our determination to give everyone the best possible chance of beating cancer and that is why I am delighted Harpal Kumar has agreed to lead this task force that will see the brightest and best experts working on what more we can do.

“As we look to the future, we must do everything we can to improve prevention, detect cancer earlier and, above all, ensure better care for patients.

“You can’t have a strong NHS without a strong economy. It’s because of the difficult decisions we have taken on the economy that we are able to ensure the NHS is equipped to treat more people than ever before and make far greater use of breakthrough drugs and innovative therapies in treating diseases like cancer.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “It is vital that the NHS diagnoses cancer early and is at the forefront of the latest developments in cancer treatment.

“We are on track to save an extra 12,000 lives a year by 2015, but we will not let up in our efforts to speed up diagnosis and ensure that cancer patients get the best possible treatment and care.”

The task force will include cancer doctors and clinicians, patients’ groups and charity leaders, including Macmillan Cancer Support, Public Health England, local councils, and the Royal College of GPs.

It will consider prevention, first contact with services, diagnosis, treatment, support for those living with and after cancer, and end-of-life care, as well as how all these services will need to develop in future.

It will also produce a new five-year cancer strategy by the summer.

NHS England also announced the launch of a major early diagnosis programme, working jointly with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support, testing seven new approaches to identifying cancer more quickly.

The aim is to evaluate a number of initiatives across more than 60 sites around the country to collect evidence on approaches that could be implemented from 2016/17.

Initiatives will include offering patients the option to self-refer for diagnostic tests, lowering referral thresholds for GPs, and multi-disciplinary diagnostic centres where patients can have several tests in the same place on the same day.

There will also be an extension of NHS England’s “Commissioning through Evaluation” programme which involves innovative radiotherapy treatment, stereotactic ablative radiotherapy (SABR), costing in the region of £5 million each year.

This new commitment comes following a campaign led by former England rugby captain Lawrence Dallaglio, aiming to make SABR more widely available to cancer patients in England.

The evaluation programme will enable the number of cancer patients eligible to access SABR treatment to rise significantly, by 750 new patients a year.

The programme will widen the number of cancers being treated to include the treatment of oligometastatic disease (cancer that has spread to another part of the body), primary liver tumours, spinal tumours, the re-irradiation of cancers in the pelvis and other selected indications.

This investment is in addition to NHS England’s pledge to fund up to £6 million over the next five years to cover the NHS treatment costs of SABR clinical trials led by Cancer Research UK.

Mr Kumar said: “Cancer Research UK is projecting an increase of a third in the number of cases over the next 15 years. So the time is right to set new ambitions and to take a fresh look at how we will meet this need. I am honoured to have been asked to lead this cross-system group which will address this.”

Dallaglio, who campaigns for improved cancer services, said: “This project is a significant step forward for patient access to advanced radiotherapy in our country.

“It will double the number of cancer patients being treated with SABR, more than double the number of cancers treated and, just as importantly, lead the way for patients to be treated within their own regions. There remains a good way to go but this agreement shows that when we all work together great things can be achieved.”

NHS England chief executive Simon Stevens said: “Cancer survival rates in England are at an all-time high, but too many patients are still being diagnosed late – up to one in four only when they present in A&E.

“So it’s time for a fresh look at how we can do even better – with more focus on prevention, earlier diagnosis and modern radiotherapy and other services so that over the next five years we can save at least 8,000 more lives a year.”

Dr Imogen Locke, clinical lead for radiotherapy at The Royal Marsden, said: “We welcome these new initiatives announced by Simon Stevens and NHS England including the establishment of the Cancer Taskforce which will be a major driver for improving outcomes for patients.

“The extra funding from NHS England for new radiotherapy technology will benefit many patients across the country.

“We are looking forward to working with NHS England, the radiotherapy CRG and other trusts to gather the evidence needed to show the effectiveness of this treatment.

“The Royal Marsden is particularly pleased to be part of this new initiative as we have been working in this area for many years, making major contributions to the development of Intensity-Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT), Stereotactic Body Radiation Therapy (SBRT) and Image-guided radiation therapy (IGRT).

“This is a great opportunity not just to offer these valuable techniques to patients, but it also encourages the continuation of research programmes into this important cancer treatment modality.”

Labour health spokesman Andrew Gwynne said: “We welcome the launch of this independent task force to help produce a cancer strategy for the NHS.

“The last Labour government made huge progress on improving cancer care, but sadly that progress has stalled in recent years.

“Growing numbers of patients are waiting too long to get tested for cancer and the NHS has repeatedly missed the target for treatment too. When it comes to cancer, speed is everything and patients are being badly let down.

“That is why Labour will guarantee a maximum one-week wait for cancer tests and create a new Cancer Treatments Fund to improve access to drugs, radiotherapy and surgery.”