The UK Government has committed £200m to local cancer care to address gaps in screening uptake and reduce inequalities in screening in deprived areas.
Patients in disadvantaged and underserved areas will have access to potentially life-saving early cancer diagnosis through a cancer screening postcode lottery initiative.
Communities across England will benefit from major investment aimed at reducing inequalities in cancer screening and detecting more cancers earlier.
Health and Human Services Secretary Wes Streeting explained: “In 1948, the NHS was founded on the promise that everyone should have access to the best possible care, regardless of their ability to pay or where they live.
“The cancer treatment postcode lottery we are seeing today shows that promise is still unrealized. Our cancer screening plan will rectify this problem through investment and modernization.”
More people are surviving cancer, but progression is slowing
More people survive cancer than ever before, but progress has slowed over the past decade and survival rates in the UK now lag behind many other European countries for some cancer types.
Despite the importance of early diagnosis for survival, between 2013 and 2020 there were large disparities in early diagnosis between the richest and poorest regions of the country.
Furthermore, data from March 2021 to December 2023 showed that early cancer death rates were more than twice as high (101%) in Blackpool (208 per 100,000 people) than in Harrow (104 per 100,000 people), making them the areas with the highest and lowest early cancer death rates respectively. These disparities are further exacerbated when ethnicity, UK place of birth and socio-economic status are taken into account.
The government is determined to overcome this trend by improving cancer screening for early diagnosis. This is essential to reduce inequalities in cancer survival rates in different regions of the country.
Early diagnosis is increasing due to enhanced cancer screening services
There have been recent signs of progress, with the government achieving the first sustained increase in early diagnosis in more than a decade by streamlining referral routes, supporting primary care to identify signs and symptoms, and rolling out lung cancer screening.
Early diagnosis rates in 2024 and 2025 are at record levels, and this increase equates to around 10,000 more people being diagnosed in the early stages last year.
Improving access in the UK’s most deprived areas
From 2026, Cancer Alliance, the local NHS partnership that coordinates cancer services, and Neighborhood Health Services will work directly with local communities, screening committees and health care providers to develop targeted campaigns aimed at reducing the gap in cancer screening uptake between the poorest and least deprived areas.
These partnerships will work with community groups and charities to identify barriers, design effective local campaigns to maximize impact, and develop targeted campaigns aimed at reducing gaps in testing uptake.
This funding builds on the success of existing initiatives across the country.
For example, mobile lung cancer screening is being offered to people aged 55-74 who are or have smoked, with troops visiting communities across Greater Manchester. More than 1,200 patients have been diagnosed with lung cancer through this program, with nearly 80% detected at an early, treatable stage.
In Liverpool, a new mobile breast cancer screening unit is directly servicing north and mid-Liverpool, an area with the lowest uptake in the country.
Supporting patients through diagnosis, treatment, and aftercare
Patients want to be supported in living successfully with cancer, knowing they have faster diagnosis and the latest, most innovative treatments backed by the latest research.
This is why the Government has worked with clinicians, charities and patients to develop the next National Cancer Plan, based squarely on patient experience and needs.
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