UK cancer care in crisis and patients will die due to lack of strategy, experts warn

Report by leading cancer experts criticises ministers for scrapping dedicated plan to tackle disease

UK cancer care is in crisis and patients will die because of ministers’ decision to axe a dedicated plan to tackle the disease, leading cancer experts have warned.

Waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are at a record high and it is expected there will be 2,000 extra cancer patients a week by 2040. In January, the government scrapped its longstanding cancer plan and instead merged it into a wider “major conditions strategy” that also covers a range of other major diseases.