NHS England’s Medical Director, Professor Sir Bruce Keogh, has welcomed the announcement of the equipment and building suppliers which will start work on the UK’s first proton beam therapy cancer centres this summer. The Government is investing £250 million in the building of the two specialist centres at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust […]

The NHS Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) today (Monday) published the outcome of its review of drugs included in the Fund. The budget for the CDF will grow from £200 million in 2013/14, to £280 million in 2014/15, and an estimated £340 million from April 2015. This represents a total increase of 70 per cent since […]

NHS England today (Sunday) announced a new independent taskforce to develop a five-year action plan for cancer services that will improve survival rates and save thousands of lives. It also launched a major new programme to test innovative ways of diagnosing cancer more quickly at more than 60 sites across the country, and committed a further £15m over three years to evaluate and treat patients with a type of modern […]

NHS England has today (Monday, 22 December 2014) announced eleven centres across the country that will lead the way in delivering the 100,000 Genomes Project. The three-year project, launched by the Prime Minister earlier this year, will transform diagnosis and treatment for patients with cancer and rare diseases. The initiative involves collecting and decoding 100,000 […]

NHS England today published its updated procedure for evaluating drugs in the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF), which will mean more effective and promising drugs will be prioritised and made available to patients. Since it was established in 2010, more than 55,000 patients have accessed treatment through the CDF – around 2,000 every month. Last week […]

NHS England is seeking people’s views on proposed changes to the shape of Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) and Stereotactic Radiotherapy (SRT) services across the country. SRS and SRT are forms of radiotherapy used to treat patients with intracranial conditions such as brain tumours. NHS England took on responsibility for commissioning these services in April 2013 and […]

NHS England is proposing changes to the way its Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) operates, in order that it delivers maximum benefit for patients, within the resources available. Clinicians and cancer specialists believe the changes, if adopted, would: improve patient access to the most clinically effective drugs available through the fund; encourage pricing that delivers value […]

Cancer patients are increasingly positive about their care with 89% rating it as excellent or very good, a national survey shows. This comes as the NHS is treating more patients for cancer than ever before. The national cancer patient experience survey 2014, published today, asked over 110,000 cancer patients across the country for their views on […]

NHS England has issued the following statement in response to an article in the Independent today (Saturday 6 September), which claims the NHS ignored offers of therapy at a Czech proton clinic. A Spokesperson from NHS England said: “The NHS has secured adequate capacity in established high quality international proton beam treatment centres.  These have […]

NHS England today (Friday) praised NHS staff for referring and treating an increasing number of patients for cancer as more people step forward for treatment early. Publishing the latest statistics on cancer waiting time standards, it said a welcome rise in referrals and treatment rates had put pressure on hospitals. It announced the creation of […]