| Dear Supporter, Welcome to the July 2023 CRUK Early Diagnosis Newsletter.
Over the last few months we’ve seen an array of exciting activity within the cancer early diagnosis space.
It was fantastic to see the focus on reducing late stage cancer diagnosis in the Scottish 10-year cancer plan. See below to find out our hopes for how the strategy can transform cancer outcomes. The long-awaited NHS Long Term Workforce Plan for England was also published recently. This signals a step in the right direction, with welcome investment in training for NHS staff. But there is still much to be done to address significant challenges, particularly around recruitment and retention.
Here at CRUK, we have been working hard on our Manifesto for Cancer Research and Care, where we will set out a series of actionable, impactful policy recommendations in time to inform policy debates leading into the next general election.
Finally, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our Early Diagnosis newsletter and would be very grateful if you could spare a few minutes to share your feedback via this form. We are committed to delivering relevant news and updates that are important to you, and we’d very much appreciate your feedback.
Keep scrolling to learn more about developments in breast cancer mortality rates, lung screening updates, the Early Detection of Cancer Conference and much more! And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter for more regular updates @CRUKHCPs
Thanks all. Sam Harrison
Policy, Information and Communications Directorate at Cancer Research UK |
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| | Lung cancer screening announcement We strongly welcomed the Government announcement in June that there will be a national roll out of the targeted lung screening programme in England. The screening programme will see people aged 55 to 74 with a GP record including a history of smoking assessed and invited for screenings and smoking cessation services.
Please visit our HCP lung cancer screening webpage for more information on changes to the programme. |
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| | Breast cancer mortality rates A recent CRUK-funded study has shown that 90% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer will survive the disease for 5 years or more. The study tracked trends in breast cancer over the last 20 years, analysing NHS health data from 512,447 women. It found that women in England diagnosed with early breast cancer today are 66% less likely to die from the disease within five years than they were 20 years ago. |
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| | Cancer wait times Recent data has shown the extent of the pressure on the health system in England, and the impact this has had on cancer waiting times. When considering four important targets that indicate how well cancer services are doing, all four targets were missed. In May 2023, the 61-day target of 85% was not met, with only 58.7% of people starting treatment for cancer within 62-days of an urgent referral. Click below to read our reflection on these recent findings.
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 Scottish 10-year Cancer Strategy The new Cancer Strategy for Scotland 2023-2033 has now been published by the Scottish Government. The strategic intent is ‘to improve cancer survival and provide excellent, equitably accessible care’. The strategy outlines 11 ambitions including preventing more cancer, earlier and faster diagnosis, as well as tackling inequalities and mental health. More specifically, one of the key strategic aims is to reduce later stage diagnosis. Read our blog post which looks at how it has the potential to transform cancer services in Scotland. |
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|  NHS Long Term Workforce Plan The recent publication of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan has already sparked some important discussions on the impact this may have on the delivery of cancer services across the UK. We recently set out our 5 key tests for this plan in our blog post prior to its publication, and whilst the plan does show some meaningful progress with regards to investment in education and training, there are still a number of gaps that need to be considered. Watch this space for a more detailed assessment coming soon. |
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| | NCDA Podcast Listen to Dr Ruth Swann (Senior Cancer Information Analyst on the CRUK-NHSE partnership) discuss the latest England findings from the 2018 National Cancer Diagnosis Audit (NCDA) on the BJPG podcast. The NCDA was a partnership programme managed by CRUK that gathered data on the diagnostic journeys of cancer patients. In the podcast, Ruth explains the key results from her research paper, 'National Cancer Diagnosis Audits for England 2018 versus 2014: a comparative analysis’ and explores what has changed in the referral and management of cancer cases between 2014 and 2018.
You can read the research paper in full here. |
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Early Detection of Cancer Conference This year’s annual Early Detection of Cancer Conference is taking place between 10-12 October in London. Join us to learn about the latest developments in the field, and hear more on topics such as inequalities, risk stratification and multicancer early detection from world-leading researchers from across the globe. Make sure you register to guarantee your place. |
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 Thank you for reading our Early Diagnosis Newsletter. To help us improve please tell us what you think using the feedback form here.  |
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| | | The Strategic Evidence Team |
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| Contact the Strategic Evidence team here. |
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