The NHS has announced that the number of patients who received lifesaving checks for cancer in the past year has hit a new record of nearly three million (2.92m) people.
The NHS has been seeing and treating more patients for cancer following efforts to encourage people to get checked sooner.
In June, the NHS saw 261,000 people for urgent cancer checks – double the number of people checked in the same month over a decade ago (101,592).
Another 335,000 people have also begun treatment for cancer in the last year (July 2022 to June 2023), with an increase of 20,000 people between July 2018 and June 2019, pre-pandemic.
From 2022 to 2023, a higher proportion of cancer than ever before was diagnosed at an early stage, before it spread – 58% of cancers were diagnosed at stage one or two, compared to 56% prior to the pandemic.
The NHS is investing billions in diagnostics and treatment to meet the increasing demand for cancer services, including expansions of community diagnostic centres (CDCs), mobile lung trucks and cancer symptom hotlines.
Since 2021, 108 CDCs have been rolled out by the NHS to offer more scans, checks and operations as soon as possible, and over four million additional checks for cancer and other major diseases have carried out, according to the latest data.
New advances in treatments and technologies have helped to steadily increase cancer survival rates over the past decade.
The NHS Long Term Plan aims to see 55,000 more people each year survive cancer for five years or longer by 2028, as well as three-quarters of people diagnosed at an early stage.
The NHS is currently developing a Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad to identify thousands of patients suitable for cancer vaccine trials, with the first patient recruitment to occur this autumn.
Health minister Will Quince has said that “progress to … cut waiting lists and ensure people get the care they needed more quickly” have been made.
Professor Peter Johnson, NHS England national clinical director for cancer, said: “The NHS will continue to invest in the latest technology and treatments for patients, from trials of new blood tests to cancer vaccines.”