Deadly delays in NHS cancer treatment should be tackled with the same urgency as the search for a Covid vaccine, experts have said.
The paper in The Lancet Oncology said that cancer waiting times are the worst ever, adding: “The UK public and the NHS should not tolerate the normalisation of delayed cancer care.”
It cites research suggesting there will be a 17 per cent increase in UK cancer deaths because of delays in diagnosis and treatment since the pandemic. The paper says: “Excess cancer deaths since March 2020 are already 8,815, with 3,327 in the last six months, and this trend is likely to continue.”
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The clinicians, from Imperial College London,
