Cancer Plan Must Be Updated, Warns Report

August 29th 2006

The current NHS Cancer Plan must be updated in light of an ageing population, expensive new treatments, and the move towards treatment in community settings.

This is the message from a report by the King’s Fund think-tank, urging the government to reform cancer services.

The report, based on a literature review and interviews with ten cancer experts, says that "considerable success" has been achieved by the 10-year plan set out in 2000, but certain "gaps" remain.

It states: "Demographic trends will increase the incidence of cancer in coming decades and better treatments will increase the number of survivors. The inevitable effect is that more people will live with cancer in remission and this is bound to increase the demand for resources for cancer."

The report adds that a national debate is needed to determine which treatments are given within limited financial resources.

"Thousands of new cancer drugs are in development but many are high cost and currently of marginal benefit. The very public demands made by some breast cancer patients for Herceptin may well be repeated for other drugs in the coming years. We need a public debate, with informed media coverage, about how to value the marginal gains in survival associated with new cancer drugs."

Dr Rebecca Rosen of the King’s Fund said: "The health service is changing, and cancer services will need support to adapt to this."

The government has stated that a second plan will be considered.

Subscribe or spread the word:

Related Information

• More NHS cancer plan news articles
• More Kings Fund news articles