New NHS figures show that the proportion of cancer patients beginning treatment within the 62‑day target has slipped to 71.2%, down from 71.9%, leaving thousands like Alan, a 70‑year‑old lung cancer patient, waiting months for surgery while their disease progresses.
The Human Cost of Waiting
Alan was diagnosed with lung cancer after a routine scan revealed a nodule in June 2025. He was told surgery should take place within weeks, but the operation was delayed for nearly five months. By the time he entered theatre, the tumour had spread to his lymph nodes and the original lesion had grown at an alarming rate, according to his lung specialist.
“I was so frustrated and angry and couldn’t understand why they would leave me like that,” says Alan.
On two separate occasions his follow‑up scans were cancelled because the imaging machines had broken down. For weeks he heard little or nothing from the hospital about when his urgent surgery would finally happen.
After the procedure, Alan was informed that the cancer had cleared, pending his one‑year review. Yet the surgery left him in debilitating pain. “I used to play golf and get out and about. Now I can’t do any of the things I love,” he adds.
His experience mirrors that of thousands each month in England who are not treated within the national cancer waiting time target.
Missed Targets and Growing Pressure
The government’s National Cancer Plan, together with NHS Planning Guidance, set an ambition that 80% of patients would start treatment within 62 days of an urgent GP referral by March 2027, rising to 85% by March 2029.
Latest NHS England data, however, show a reverse trend. Only 71.2% of patients now meet the 62‑day benchmark, a slight decline from the previous 71.9%.
Prof Pat Price, a leading UK clinical academic oncologist, warns that the targets “are now simply impossible to hit” after what she describes as a “complete loss of momentum”. She blames the shortfall on a “complete lack of a plan or accountability”. The plan had promised a new independent cancer board to oversee progress, but its leadership remains unclear.
Radiotherapy UK’s exclusive analysis suggests that to reach the March 2027 goal, an additional 2,800 patients would need to begin treatment each month – roughly a 15% increase on current volumes. With referrals rising across almost every tumour type, the gap is likely to widen.
Price adds that “thousands of patients are going to die unnecessarily, just because the government can’t get their act together to treat people on time”. She notes that for each month a patient waits before starting therapy, their chance of survival drops by about 10% on average.
Looking ahead to 2029, roughly 54,000 more patients must commence treatment within the 62‑day window for the government to meet its longer‑term ambition.
Innovative Care Amid System Strain
Despite the pressures, some trusts are showing pockets of progress. Salisbury District Hospital, for example, has made strides in skin and prostate cancer pathways, though it still falls short of the national target.
Staff there stress that there is no single remedy; improvement comes from relentless attention to basics – ensuring patients receive appointment letters, keeping IT systems functional, recruiting the right personnel, filling surgical lists and expanding capacity.
One illustration of joined‑up care is Diane’s experience. She had a cancerous lump removed from her face at Salisbury using an innovative intra‑operative technique that checks tumour margins while the patient is still in surgery. The approach eliminates the need for a second operation and allows complex reconstruction that leaves hardly a trace.
“It’s amazing, you literally can’t see I had a large cancerous lesion removed from my cheek,” she tells the BBC.
Consultant plastic surgeon Neil Wickham examined her face, confirmed a biopsied lump on her arm was benign and referred her to an ENT specialist for a separate neck lump – the sort of coordinated pathway the National Cancer Plan hoped to trigger across England.
Workforce and Diagnostic Bottlenecks
Behind the scenes, Salisbury’s pathology department feels the strain. Head of department Lee Phillips explains that his histology lab receives cancer biopsies from across the hospital, and the sheer volume of specimens is becoming a problem. “We need more staff and more kit if we’re going to keep up with demand,” he says.
Radiotherapy also presents a bottleneck. Salisbury lacks an on‑site linear accelerator, so patients requiring daily sessions over one to three weeks must travel up to an hour to Southampton or sometimes Bath.
Missed appointments further erode capacity. Late letters, illness, transport difficulties and anxiety all contribute to no‑shows that waste precious slots. Emilia Scutt, the trust’s cancer manager, says efforts to reduce these missed attendances have helped their numbers. “We know cancer can be terrifying so we are a bit like a dog with the bone, backing up patients and supporting them wherever we can,” she remarks.
Other trusts facing sharp declines – Buckinghamshire Healthcare, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Royal Devon University Healthcare Trust, East Cheshire and Torbay and South Devon – cite a mixture of rising demand, workforce shortages, diagnostic delays, industrial action, staff sickness and reliance on external diagnostic providers. All report they are investing in extra capacity, tackling backlogs and redesigning pathways, with early signs of improvement beginning to appear.
Why it Matters
The slipping cancer waiting‑time figures are not merely statistical fluctuations; they translate into real‑world harm for patients whose tumours advance while they wait. Each month of delay chips away at survival odds, turning potentially curable disease into a more complex, painful battle. While isolated trusts demonstrate that targeted improvements – better appointment systems, investment in diagnostics and radiotherapy, and truly joined‑up care – can make a difference, the national picture shows a system struggling to keep pace with growing need. Without urgent, coordinated action to bolster staffing, equipment and accountability, the ambition of the National Cancer Plan will remain out of reach, and more patients like Alan will face preventable deterioration. The stakes are nothing less than lives that could be saved if treatment arrived in time.
