English cancer plan making progress -auditor

A 10-year campaign to cut cancer deaths in England is having positive effects, though more remains to be done, a public spending watchdog said Friday.

The National Audit Office (NAO) said that four years into the plan, substantial progress had been made in meeting its targets, particularly via the creation of 34 networks to help prevention, diagnosis and treatment.

"This should contribute to the downward trend in cancer mortality rates and continue to bring significant benefits to patients," NAO chief John Bourn said in a statement.

The auditor said the networks had improved planning for the introduction of new cancer drugs and the delivery of palliative care for people with cancer.

Other pluses included a faster downtrend in smoking, more breast screening, speedier diagnosis and treatment, the creation of specialist teams, less variation in access to cancer drugs and increased numbers of cancer specialists.

A tobacco advertising ban and stronger partnership between the health service and voluntary sector groups also helped.

"Cancer networks have achieved much but there is more to be done if they are all to become fully effective," Bourn added.

Last month, an NAO survey found a fifth of patients with suspected cancer waited more than a month to be seen by a specialist.

Another NAO publication a year ago said that for some cancers, people in England were diagnosed at a more advanced stage of the disease than in other European countries.

It blamed several factors including patient delay in coming forward, doctors failing to identify symptoms early enough and longer waits for diagnostic tests.

It said there was also evidence that within England, people in poorer areas were likely to be diagnosed with more advanced cancers than those from richer places.