Cancer Outcomes in the UK

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada. I congratulate my noble friend Lord Patel on securing this important debate, which places emphasis on diagnostic care, research and the necessary delivery mechanisms to implement the National Cancer Plan.

I am a breast cancer survivor who was on a clinical trial—the add-aspirin double-blind trial—for five years. The result of that trial in both Britain and Ireland will be revealed next year, with the aim of showing—I hope—that taking aspirin can help in the reduction of breast cancer. That is what I hope the research will show; we will see in time.

There is no doubt that research needs meaningful government and charitable investment, which in turn requires sound management. I acknowledge those who have provided briefings for us all today, including the Institute of Cancer Research, Young Lives vs Cancer, Leukaemia UK, Breast Cancer Now and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society—to name just a few. All the briefings highlight the importance of frequent and early screening, diagnostics and equitable access to more effective treatments, as well as the need to strengthen clinical trial infrastructure and create closer links between trials and clinical practice. They also highlight the importance of research and innovation, including the need to improve genomic testing in the UK by mandating faster test turnaround times and to standardise and make accessible a centralised data collection linked to other databases.

Undoubtedly, the National Cancer Plan for England sets out ambitious and necessary targets to improve cancer outcomes, which I welcome. Research is fundamental to delivering all these outcomes, but we will not hit these targets if they are not driven by the latest research. Universities are the primary delivery mechanism for this research, and they are under significant financial strain. The financial health of the universities is the litmus test for the UK’s scientific future. The key challenge is delivery, as was pointed out by Professor Kristian Helin of the ICR and in a subsequent blog by Ollie Richards, the advocacy manager for the Institute of Cancer Research.

The ambitious targets in the National Cancer Plan will not be met without cutting-edge cancer research to drive new standards of care, alongside time-saving and cost-saving efficiencies. The plan aims for 75% of people diagnosed with cancer to survive at least five years: a 25% increase on current levels. Achieving this will require more than incremental gains; it will depend on better treatments, more precise targeting of therapies and a deeper understanding of cancer biology, all of which is rooted in research. At the time of my diagnosis eight years ago, I was told that they were able to diagnose the content of a tumour and direct the treatment to the tumour: that was the difference and the improvement. It encouraged me to go on my treatment plan.

The ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 cannot be achieved through awareness of existing screening alone. It will require new screening approaches, more sensitive diagnostics, and improved risk stratification—again, all driven by research. This work is already under way at the Institute of Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden, and there is an exploration of saliva tests to assess the genetic risk of prostate cancer, showing that, for some men, it can outperform the current PSA test.

The National Cancer Plan includes targets on diagnosis and treatment times and an additional 9.5 million diagnostic tests by 2029, but volume alone is insufficient. Faster pathways depend on innovation and technologies that streamline diagnosis and reduce treatment burden. Therefore, research is critical here. Dr Matthew Blackledge’s quickDWI project is developing a five-minute MRI scan with the potential of transforming the patient experience, which frees up NHS capacity. Similarly, the PACE-B trial at the Royal Marsden and ICR demonstrated that higher-dose radiotherapy can cut treatment time by up to 75% for some prostate cancer patients. We cannot ignore the importance of early-stage research and discovery science helping to answer key biological questions. It is often the least visible and most vulnerable part of the system—a concern increasingly voiced across the sector in recent months.

The bottom line is that cancer research does not happen in a vacuum. It depends on sustained investment, policy stability and access to the best talent. If we want research to deliver the National Cancer Plan’s ambitions on survival, early diagnosis and faster treatment, all of us—Parliament, the Government, research institutions and clinical practitioners—have to ensure that the system that underpins it is strong enough to deliver what the National Cancer Plan requires. In this respect, I ask my noble friend the Minister what plans the Government have to do just that. I welcome the National Cancer Plan and I want to see it implemented, but I want to see how it will be implemented and the resources revealed to do just that: to ensure that this National Cancer Plan is capable of implementation with sufficient resources in research and innovation and within the universities.