Ambition into action: delivering the future of the National Cancer Plan
TThe UK stands at a defining moment for cancer care. The Government’s National Cancer Plan sets out a clear ambition: earlier diagnosis, faster access to treatment and more personalised care. Alongside this, the UK’s wider health mission is increasingly focused on prevention, innovation and economic growth – recognising that better health outcomes and national prosperity are deeply interconnected.1
At AstraZeneca, our ambition to eliminate cancer as a cause of death drives everything we do. Through Cancer: Project Zero, we are working with partners from across the system to identify and scale the interventions that will make this a reality, from earlier detection pathways to data-driven care models, so that innovation reaches patients faster.
Cancer remains a barometer of the health system. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting has said cancer is the “canary in the coalmine” when it comes to the NHS as it covers the whole patient journey.2 Survival rates have improved, but not fast enough.3 If the UK is to meet its ambition to ensure that three in four people live well for at least five years after diagnosis, we must now focus relentlessly on implementation.4
The UK does not have an innovation challenge in cancer care. It has an implementation challenge. And that is what we urgently need to fix.
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That starts with early detection. We know that diagnosing cancer earlier is one of the biggest determinants of survival.5 The UK has made important progress, with early-stage diagnosis now at its highest recorded level.6 But there is an opportunity to go further and faster.
Advances in diagnostics hold significant promise, and the UK is well-placed to lead. England is among the first countries to introduce targeted lung cancer screening, with 75 per cent of cancers detected at stage 1 or 2 in pilot sites, with the greatest impact so far seen in socioeconomically deprived regions.7 Technologies such as liquid biopsy and genomic testing can help match patients to the most effective treatments. But their impact will depend not on scientific potential, but on how quickly they are embedded into routine care.
Across the system, there are examples of transformative technologies – from AI-assisted imaging to digital pathology – that could improve productivity, reduce variation and enhance outcomes. Evidence suggests that AI could significantly increase cancer detection rates while easing workforce pressures.8 By helping clinicians spot cancer earlier, tools like C the Signs have driven a 12.3 per cent increase in detection rates – translating innovation directly into earlier diagnoses and the potential for better outcomes.9
Yet too often, these innovations remain confined to pilots. The challenge now is to move from pilots and pockets of excellence to system-wide adoption.
Doing so requires a shift in mindset. The first step towards transformation is often “doing what we know works” – ensuring consistent, guideline-directed care across the country. Variation in access and outcomes remains one of the greatest barriers to progress and addressing it must be a priority, so seeing a commitment in the Plan to improving metrics that highlight variation is welcome.
Alongside this, we need to rethink how care is delivered. Cancer care has historically been designed around institutions rather than patients. The future must be different: more personalised pathways, greater use of real-time data, and stronger integration between hospital and community services – reflecting the broader shift from hospital to community care set out in the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan.10 Reform must also prioritise the NHS workforce, equipping clinicians with the tools, data and protected time required to deliver high-quality, patient-centred care.
This is particularly important as more people live longer with cancer. Supporting patients beyond diagnosis – through rehabilitation, monitoring and holistic care – will be essential to improving both outcomes and quality of life.
Technology can enable this shift, but it must be implemented in a way that enhances, rather than replaces, the human experience of care. Used well, it can reduce administrative burden, free up clinician time, strengthen patient-clinician relationships and create a clear opportunity to optimise and reform multidisciplinary team (MDT) decision-making.11 For example, ambient scribing and voice technologies can be used in multiple settings (primary, community, and care home settings to specialised hospital settings) and can automate workflow, promoting scalability and interoperability.12
None of this can be achieved in isolation. Collaboration across the NHS, academia, charities and industry is critical – particularly in research, data sharing and service transformation. The UK has a unique opportunity to lead globally in areas such as digital pathology and data-driven care, but this will require coordinated action and sustained investment.
There are also important lessons from international best practice. Denmark, for example, has delivered some of the most significant improvements in cancer survival among comparable countries.13 Denmark shows what is possible when consistent cancer plans are used to align investment, drive reform and empower clinical leadership. The UK must adopt the same discipline if it is to close the gap with leading systems.
Ultimately, the success of the National Cancer Plan will be judged not by its ambition, but by its impact. That is why we must embrace “no-regret moves” – scaling the innovations we know work, investing in the infrastructure needed to support them and empowering local leaders to drive change. It also requires sustained political focus to ensure momentum is not lost.
We owe it to patients, and to the clinicians striving to care for them, to act with the same urgency and ambition that the challenge demands.
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Date of prepartion: April 2026
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