Ed Davey sets out plan to give UK best cancer survival rates in the world

EMBARGO: IMMEDIATE RELEASE

• Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has unveiled his party’s new pledge to lift the UK from the bottom to the top of the global league table of cancer survival rates

• Freedom of Information requests by the party reveal some patients left waiting well over a year to start cancer treatment

• Cancer research funding at the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has seen a 29% real terms fall since 2015/16

• Liberal Democrats set out two-pronged approach to improving cancer outcomes by boosting research funding and improving NHS treatment capacity 

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey has unveiled a new plan to bring UK cancer survival rates in line with the best performing countries in the world, through a strategy of increasing cancer research funding and improving diagnosis and treatment.

Ed Davey has said that his own personal experience of losing both his parents to the disease at an early age is the driving force behind his determination to improve cancer care in this country. He said although survival rates had improved drastically since then, “we must have the ambition to go much further and faster” to ensure that as few people have to experience such tragic loss in future.

Research has shown that the UK is among the worst among comparable countries for cancer survival rates. Data from the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce found that five-year survival rates for both stomach and lung cancer, the UK ranks 28th out of 33 countries of comparable wealth and income levels. For pancreatic cancer, the country ranks 26th, for brain cancer 25th, and for liver and oesophageal cancers, 21st and 16th respectively. The Liberal Democrats want to close this gap and bring UK survivability rates for cancer into line with the highest ranked countries in the world.

The party’s long-term cancer survival strategy will act on two fronts: boosting capacity in the NHS to cut long treatment waits and making the UK a world leader in cancer research. The government’s current target of ensuring 85% of cancer patients start treatment within 62-days has been consistently missed since 2015, and last year 100,000 patients were not seen within the 62-days, with just 64% of patients starting their treatment within two-months. 

Shockingly, Freedom of Information requests to NHS Trusts by the party have revealed some patients have been left waiting over a year to start treatment. One patient at Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust was left waiting one year and four months (503 days) to start their cancer treatment in 2023, eight times longer than the target. In Bristol and Weston and in Sandwell and West Birmingham Trusts some patients had been waiting for 455 days to start their treatment.

The Liberal Democrats have pledged to reduce these shockingly long waiting times for cancer treatment, by investing in more cancer staff and diagnostic equipment and giving patients a legal right to start treatment within 62-days of an urgent referral. 

Separate analysis commissioned by the party has shown that government funding for cancer research at the NIHR fell by £50 million in real-terms to £122 million, a 29% real-terms decrease since 2015/16. The Liberal Democrats are calling for a boost to cancer research funding through a new Cancer Survival Research Act, which would require the government to improve research into cancers with the lowest survival rates. The party would also aim to cut cancer drug approval times from 11 months to 4 months, in line with Germany.

Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said:

“I know from my personal experience the tragic impact that cancer can have after losing both my parents to this terrible disease. Thankfully survival rates have improved since then, but we must go much further and faster to spare more families the heartbreak of losing a loved one to cancer in the years ahead.

“That is why we are setting out a plan to bring the UK’s cancer survival rates in line with the best in the world. We need to act on two fronts, reducing long delays for cancer treatment while increasing funding for research to tackle this awful disease.

“This is a challenge that I know our great country can rise to. By working together from the NHS to our world-leading scientists, we can lift the UK from the bottom to the top of the global league table of cancer survival rates.”

ENDS

Notes to Editor:

Reporting on cancer survival rates in the UK can be found here.

The Liberal Democrat FOI on longest cancer treatment start wait times can be found here.

House of Commons Library research on 62 day waits in 2023 for cancer treatment can be found here.

House of Commons Library research on survival rates and research funding cuts:

The table below shows NIHR spending on cancer research for each year from 2015/16 to 2022/23, in both cash and real terms (at 2022/23 prices). This suggests that spending in 2022/23 was £32 million less in real terms than in 2019/20, and £50 million less than in 2015/16.

Source: PQ 117504, 11 January 2023

HC Deb, Cancer Research: Funding Gap, 29 January 2024

HM Treasury, GDP deflators at market prices, December 2023

Liberal Democrat two-pronged approach to improving cancer survival rates in the UK and bringing them in line with the best in the world:

• Make the UK a world leader in cancer research by:

1. Passing a Cancer Survival Research Act that would require the Government to coordinate and ensure funding for research into the cancers with the lowest survival rates, including lung, liver, brain and pancreatic cancer.

2. Saving the National Cancer Research Institute. The Government is presiding over the closure of the National Cancer Research Institute, which was established in 2001 and plays a vital role in coordinating cancer research, due to uncertainty over research funding. Its closure has been described by one oncology professor as like “turning off air traffic control and hoping the planes will be fine”.

3. Halving the time for new treatments to reach patients. It takes an average of 11 months for a new medicine or medical technology to be approved and available to patients in England, compared to just 4 months in Germany. We will expand the MHRA’s capacity to speed up that process.

• Boost treatment capacity to ensure survival rates are in line with the best in the world by:

4. Introducing a two-month cancer treatment guarantee: a new target for 100% of patients to start treatment for cancer within 62 days from urgent referral, with this right written into law. Currently this is only a government pledge, and 36% of patients wait longer than 62 days.

5. Boosting access to radiotherapy: replace ageing radiotherapy machines and increase their number, as well as widening access so that no one has to travel too far for treatment.

6. Improving support for patients and their families: recruit more cancer nurses so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment. Ensure patients and their families are given information about charities, patient support groups and financial support at every key stage: referral, diagnosis and starting treatment.