UK cancer care: a watershed moment and the need for urgent intervention

In November, 2022, NHS England reported the worst ever waiting times for cancer treatment (figure 1).1, 2 In the past 12 months, 69 000 patients in the UK have waited longer than the recommended 62-day wait from suspected cancer referral to start of treatment (twice as many than in 2017–18), with 13% of patients with cancer in England waiting more than 104 days in September, 2022—double the advised maximum waiting time.3 Waiting times for cancer treatment have been steadily deteriorating since 2013, but this deterioration has been exacerbated since the COVID-19 pandemic. Across all three major modalities of cure—surgery, radiotherapy, and systemic therapy—a 4-week delay in treatment increases mortality by between 6% and 13% for solid cancers, with further increases if the delay is longer.4 Communities with the largest cancer burden and suffering the strongest effects of COVID-19 are often also the communities with the least access to timely cancer care, further exacerbating the differences in cancer care throughout the UK. Despite the stated commitment of the UK Government to so-called levelling up, health inequalities in the UK continue to widen...