England has launched many cancer strategies over the past 20 years. Some made real progress; others, like Sajid Javid’s “war on cancer,” never got off the ground. Despite all the political attention, improvements in outcomes have slowed and waiting times for diagnosis and treatment have increased – especially for people with rare and less survivable cancers.

So the key question is: does the new Cancer Plan finally address these long‑standing gaps?

Research and innovation

While many improvements in cancer care happen locally, the biggest shifts in research and innovation must occur nationally. This is where the Government’s plan is notably stronger and where rare and less survivable cancers are finally getting dedicated focus. Key commitments that stand out:

• Delivering the Rare Cancers Bill: Appointing a named national lead responsible for driving rare cancer research and ensuring the ‘Be Part of Research’ registry is more cohesive and has a new tailored service specifically for rare cancers will unlock better data, trials, and visibility for rare cancer communities.
• Ensuring rare cancers benefit from new technologies: The NIHR’s Invention for Innovation programme will now require research to intentionally include more patients with rare cancers. This matters: it’s the only way to understand whether cutting‑edge technologies work as well for rare cancers as for common ones.
• Expanding the mission‑based model that worked for brain cancer: The Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission has improved collaboration, training, and research for brain tumours. Extending this mission‑based approach to other rare and less survivable cancers could replicate that success at scale.

Diagnosis and care

If research is national, care is local and this plan gives Cancer Alliances and ICBs more power to drive improvements on the ground. Key shifts include:

• Screening for lung cancer (one of the less survivable cancers): lung cancer screening is specifically mentioned and prioritised in the cancer plan with a commitment to roll out targeted screening of high-risk individuals by 2030.
• New metrics for non‑stageable cancers: Brain tumours, leukaemias, and other non‑stageable cancers will now be tracked through emergency diagnosis rates. Because emergency diagnosis is strongly linked to poorer outcomes, making it a national metric creates a clearer incentive for earlier detection.
• Digitally enabled patient pathways: The plan places new emphasis on improved digital pathways, remote monitoring, AI‑supported decision tools and genomics and precision diagnostics. These tools have been maturing for years but what’s new is the expectation that they become routine.
• Stronger specialist MDT networks across providers: The transition toward specialist, multi‑provider MDTs will give more patients access to expertise concentrated in specialist centres. Cancer Alliances will play a critical role in coordinating this shift and reducing variation in care.

We all know that policy alone doesn’t deliver progress – it’s the sustained drive behind it that creates real change. For anyone looking to engage meaningfully on delivery of the new Cancer Plan, a dual strategy will be essential: national bodies shaping the framework, and Cancer Alliances and ICBs translating that ambition into action on the ground.

Recent political upheaval shouldn’t be seen as a setback, but as an opportunity. DHSC has reaffirmed its commitment to improving outcomes in rare and less survivable cancers, and as No.10 regroups (following recent dramas), the Department will have greater scope to accelerate reforms that have long been overdue.

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