Cancer experts demand law to hold ministers to account after NHS cancer plan overstated patient benefits by tenfold

From the Newshound archive · first published 29 September 2026.

Leading cancer specialists are warning Britain faces an "impending cancer epidemic from which we may never recover" unless the Government makes its treatment promises legally enforceable. Writing in The Lancet Oncology, three senior experts are urging MPs to use the Health Bill to impose binding obligations on ministers, pointing to NHS cancer targets that have gone unmet for more than a decade. According to Cancer Research UK, roughly 51,500 patients were still waiting to start treatment beyond the recommended 62-day window in just the first six months of 2026. The push comes after the National Cancer Plan had to be embarrassingly corrected when it was found to have put the number of patients who would benefit from a £70 million radiotherapy investment at ten times the true figure.

The corrected plan conflates individual treatment sessions with patients, meaning far fewer people will benefit from 28 new radiotherapy machines than originally claimed.

Professor Pat Price of Imperial College London called the situation "a disaster for patients", warning that local planning for new machines "can feel almost non-existent".

Ministers "make national promises but do not have the levers to ensure delivery", the Lancet Oncology analysis concludes — a damning verdict on a decade of broken cancer targets.