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Our goals

Goal 7


Cancer Survivors celebrating life at a Relay For Life event

Headline message


More people will survive cancer


Detailed goal

Survival rates for all common cancers will increase, with over two-thirds of newly-diagnosed patients living for at least five years.


Background information and strategies

How we will measure this

We will measure the five-year relative survival rates for all cancers combined (excluding non-melanoma skin cancer) and for the 20 most commonly diagnosed cancers.

The current situation

Around half of newly-diagnosed patients currently live for at least five years. Detailed survival data for the most commonly diagnosed cancers is available iin our CancerStats section.

We will achieve this goal by:

  • Discovering and developing new ways to screen for cancer, diagnose it and treat it
  • Supporting the development of treatment strategies that improve survival
  • Enhancing research into improving key cancer treatments, such as radiotherapy, surgery and drug combination therapies
  • Promoting the best screening and treatment strategies to Government, commercial organisations and those responsible for cancer care
  • Campaigning to turn research output into effective clinical practice quickly, in order to improve NHS cancer care and service delivery
  • Establishing a UK-wide network of Cancer Research Centres to improve knowledge flow from laboratories to patients and vice versa
  • Raising public awareness of cancer clinical trials and helping patients to find the trials most relevant to them.

    • We hope this work will also be supported by:

    Other research organisations

    • Conducting research alongside or in partnership with Cancer Research UK

    Government

    • Increasing resources for offering high-quality, cost effective and proven diagnosis and treatments for all patients throughout the UK
    • Ensuring that new treatments are assessed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and introduced as quickly as possible throughout the UK
    • Collecting better information on cancer patients' outcomes throughout the UK, as a means to improving local standards of care

    Pharmaceutical companies

    • Making new treatments available in the UK as soon as possible at an affordable price.