New NHS England data shows staff in the North West treated almost 1000 more people for cancer in January this year, compared to the previous month (December 2023), despite ongoing winter pressures and industrial action.

A new digital platform set to cut waiting times for skin cancer diagnosis and tests and checks for cancer in more convenient places are just two of the schemes helping to ensure more people with suspected cancer are seen and treated sooner in the North West.

NHS teams across the region have been working harder than ever to ensure cancer patients receive timely diagnosis and treatment, 954 more people were treated for a cancer in January, compared with December 2023, and more than 35,000 people received the all clear or a definitive diagnosis for cancer, within 28 days in January – 70.3% of the overall total and almost 1,500 more than the same month last year.

Dr Michael Gregory, Regional Medical Director for NHS England – North West said: “Knowing more people are getting the treatment they need for cancer each month, even though demand for services remains high across the region is testament to hard work and dedication of staff across the North West.

“There is still lots of work to do, and I would encourage anyone with new or worrying symptoms, which they think could be cancer, to contact their GP and get checked.

“Early diagnosis saves countless lives every year, so it is important that should you have any symptoms, to come forward as soon as possible.”

Teams across the North West are going the extra mile to get patients who have signs and symptoms of cancer seen and treated quickly. Including at East Lancashire Teaching Hospitals, where a new digital dermatology platform is set to cut waiting times for patients in East Lancashire with suspected skin cancer.

The trust has started using the Pathpoint eDerma technology to help better manage the growing pressures on its dermatology department as rates of skin cancer rise.

Teledermatology sees a healthcare professional take a high-quality image of a patient’s possibly cancerous skin issue. A skin cancer specialist can then review patient images remotely on the online platform – called Pathpoint eDerma – to determine whether a lesion may be cancerous and if the patient needs a face-to-face examination.

The technology is being funded for three years by Lancashire and South Cumbria Cancer Alliance, part of Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board, to reduce the demand for in-person appointments on busy dermatology departments and therefore cut the time it takes for patients have cancer diagnosed and begin treatment if they need it, or get the ‘all clear”.

In Greater Manchester, the cancer alliance has begun work on a single queue diagnostics programme which means patients in Greater Manchester can choose to have some scans and tests that confirm or rule out cancer at another hospital if this is quicker for them.

This reduces their time spent waiting. The initiative has been piloted and is now live now across a number of procedures to detect lung cancer (including for endobronchial ultrasound, local anaesthetic thoracoscopy, peripheral bronchoscopy and CT guided lung biopsy) as well as for endoscopic ultrasound to detect HPB and oesophageal cancers.

In lung cancer this has reduced waiting times by on average 56% for patients.

This is the first system in England that allows capacity to be directly booked by clinicians in other hospitals.

The One Stop Lung Cancer Clinic, at Wythenshawe Hospital in partnership between the Greater Manchester Cancer Alliance, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust has reduced waiting times.

The service is designed for patients diagnosed with lung cancer suitable for curative intent treatment with either surgery or radiotherapy, when it is not clear which the best option is. The clinic which launched in June 2022 and has demonstrated reductions in the time taken for a decision to be made regarding patient treatment, enabling patients to start their treatment sooner, with data showing the time from referral to the clinic to a decision to treat being made has been reduced by on average 23 days.

Across the North West, each system is working hard to diagnose lung cancer earlier, as part of the Targeted Lung Health Check programme. The programme provides screening within the community for those aged 55 – 74, and are current or former smokers who have been identified as being at increased risk of lung cancer. This initiative not only identifies more cancers quickly but can pick up a range of other health conditions including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The monthly performance data and weekly winter data can be found on our website here.