Pilot projects show cancer treatment can be speeded up

Pilot projects across the United Kingdom have shown that the diagnosis and treatment of cancer can be significantly speeded up, with some reporting a 50% reduction in time to first treatment.

The findings come from the Cancer Services Collaborative, a national programme aiming to improve the experience and outcomes of cancer care by optimising care delivery. It forms part of the NHS Cancer Plan—a national plan designed to improve cancer survival in the United Kingdom.

In a report published by the collaborative last week, results from the first 12 months showed that changes tested in pilot studies by 51 project teams across nine cancer networks had achieved significant reductions in waiting …