Cancers getting diagnosed at earlier stage

The proportion of patients diagnosed with cancer at an early stage has risen to its highest level on record, NHS figures in England show.

Data for the 13 most common cancers show 58.7% of those diagnosed between September 2023 and August 2024 were identified at stages one and two, which increases the chances of survival.

That is 2.7 percentage points up since before the pandemic – and the highest since records began more than 10 years ago.

NHS England said a combination of public awareness campaigns and new screening approaches has made a big difference.

But despite the progress England is still struggling to achieve its ambition of diagnosing 75% of cancer at stages one and two by 2028.

And the NHS is also failing to hit its target for starting treatment quickly – nearly one in three people diagnosed with cancer wait longer than 62 days from an urgent referral.

According to a Nuffield Trust report, external last year these are all factors in why cancer survival rates in the UK lag behind many other comparable countries.

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Source: BBC News, 2 January 2025