Sajid Javid to launch 10-year ‘national war on cancer’

In a speech at the Francis Crick Institute, health and social care secretary Sajid Javid will today “declare a war on cancer” and launch a call for evidence to underpin an ambitious 10-Year Cancer Plan for England.

The minister will set out his vision to make England a world-leader in cancer care as we learn to live COVID-19 – with renewed attention paid to innovative treatment and early diagnosis to radically improve outcomes for cancer patients.

Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid is expected to say: “Let this be the day where we declare a national war on cancer. We have published the call for evidence for a new 10 Year Cancer Plan for England, a searching new vision for how we will lead the world in cancer care.

“This Plan will show how we are learning the lessons from the pandemic, and apply them to improving cancer services over the next decade.”

Large improvements in cancer care have been made in recent years – in the last 15 years, one-year survival has increased by more than 10% and for patients diagnosed in 2015, their survival rate was 72% after one year.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly had an impact. While cancer treatment was maintained at 94% of pre-pandemic levels and 95% of people starting treatment did so within a month, there were nearly 50,000 fewer cancer diagnoses across the UK during the pandemic, including 34,000 in England between March 2020 and November 2021.

Sajid Javid will today set out his determination to go further, building on the progress of the NHS Long Term Plan with a set of new and strengthened priorities, which include increasing the number of people diagnosed at an early stage, where treatment can prove much more effective and boosting the cancer workforce.

During the Omicron wave, the government struck a deal with the independent sector to create new wards and Nightingale hubs in gyms and education centres.

Today’s new call for evidence is seeking input from cancer patients, relatives and NHS staff to gain the deepest understanding of the issue possible and provide the best future for the country’s cancer care. The easiest way to participate is by visiting gov.uk/dhsc.

The call for evidence will run for 8 weeks, after which the government will factor in responses into its new 10-Year Cancer Plan which is expected to be set out in summer.