More people than ever are getting checked for cancer in England as the NHS continues to drive early diagnosis amid record-breaking demand.
Between July 2022 and June 2023, 2.92 million patients received potentially life-saving checks for cancer, with June alone seeing 261,000 people getting seen which is significantly more than the circa 101,000 people who got checked in the same month a decade ago.
This comes alongside more people than ever starting cancer treatment in the last year, with 335,000 people beginning their care between July 2022 and June 2023 – over 20,000 more than the same figure between July 2018 and June 2019.
The encouraging statistics come at a time when the health service is investing billions in various initiatives which are all designed to detect cancer at its earliest and, therefore, easiest to treat.
The continued roll-out of community diagnostic centres, mobile lung trucks and symptom hotlines are all a part of this plan, as some of the latest figures show the highest proportion ever of cancers were caught at stage one or two last year.
Around 58% of cancers, totalling more than 110,000 patients, were diagnosed at this earliest stage – this compares to approximately 56% before the pandemic.
NHS England’s national clinical director for cancer, Professor Peter Johnson, said: “We have lots more to do, but we won’t stop in our efforts to ensure people are seen and diagnosed as early as possible, and as it always has, the NHS will continue to invest in the latest technology and treatments for patients, from trials of new blood tests to cancer vaccines.”
This autumn will see the first patients being recruited to a new NHS programme that seeks to identify which people could be suitable for cancer vaccine trials.
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