Experts Urge Legal Right to Timely Cancer Care

Published: 07 November 2025. The English Chronicle Desk. The English Chronicle Online.

Leading international health experts have called for a legal guarantee that cancer patients in the UK receive treatment within two months of an urgent GP referral — even if this means the NHS must fund care privately or abroad. The proposal, outlined in The Lancet Oncology, seeks to transform the way cancer care is delivered in Britain by giving patients enforceable rights similar to those already established in Denmark.

The call comes amid growing concern over the NHS’s prolonged failure to meet its own cancer treatment targets. Since December 2015, the health service has missed its goal of ensuring that 85% of cancer patients begin treatment within 62 days of referral. Experts warn that continued delays are costing lives and deepening inequalities across the system.

According to the research cited in the paper, every four weeks of delay in starting cancer treatment increases the risk of death by up to 10%. Despite numerous government pledges to improve cancer care, the UK still ranks near the bottom of international survival league tables. The authors of the report argue that the absence of a legal right to timely care leaves patients vulnerable and the system unaccountable.

They propose that the government’s forthcoming national cancer plan should not simply outline broad goals or aspirational targets but must enshrine legally enforceable entitlements. Without such rights, they argue, the plan risks being a “paper exercise” that offers little real progress. “The concern is that the [cancer plan] will be a consensus plan to appease multiple stakeholders, rather than to provide radical, accountable, independent leadership,” the paper concludes.

Eduardo Pisani, chief executive of the international nonprofit All.Can and one of the paper’s co-authors, said that creating statutory rights would deliver transformative results. “International evidence shows that strong cancer plans, supported by legal rights, ensure patients have guaranteed access to timely, high-quality care,” he explained. “This protection promotes early treatment, reduces inequalities and ultimately improves health outcomes.”

The model for such a system already exists in Denmark, where since 1999 patients have been entitled by law to start cancer treatment within 28 days of referral and within 14 days of consenting to a treatment plan. Denmark’s five-year survival rates for several major cancers rank among the best in Europe, and waiting lists are minimal — outcomes that UK campaigners now want to replicate.

Mark Lawler, professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast and chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, said the UK must adopt a similarly bold approach. As a joint lead author of the paper, he explained that a legal framework would compel hospitals to act quickly. “If UK cancer patients cannot be treated at their own hospital within 62 days, the NHS would have to pay to treat them at another NHS hospital, privately, or even in another country,” he said. “This fundamental contract between patients and the NHS must be explicit, with patients able to seek legal redress for any breaches.”

The authors also call for patients to have additional legal entitlements, including the right to a designated cancer professional to oversee their care from diagnosis through recovery. This would ensure continuity and accountability in treatment plans, reducing the confusion and distress many patients experience when navigating the system.

Another proposed reform involves adopting the “right to be forgotten” law already in place in nine European countries. This provision would allow cancer survivors to move on from their diagnosis without fear of discrimination. Five years after successful treatment, patients would no longer be required to disclose their medical history to insurers, mortgage lenders, or employers. Such legal protection would prevent survivors from facing higher premiums or financial barriers because of their past illness.

Cary Adams, chief executive of the Union for International Cancer Control, emphasised the global importance of legally guaranteed cancer rights. “Cancer plans recognising the rights of all people living with cancer to receive the treatment they need when they need it are essential in every country,” he said. “Time and time again, we see governments struggle to respond to cancer in their country without a robust, well-funded plan, resulting in the unnecessary loss of people’s lives and trauma to their families.”

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has responded to the recommendations, reaffirming the government’s commitment to reforming cancer services. A spokesperson said: “This government is committed to transforming cancer care following years of neglect. We are determined to ensure patients get timely diagnoses – that is why we have introduced Jess’s rule, requiring GPs to reconsider cases where symptoms escalate or no diagnosis emerges after three appointments.”

The DHSC also highlighted ongoing investment in diagnostic capacity and technology. “We are cutting waiting times for cancer care by diagnosing or ruling out 135,000 more cancer cases this year,” the spokesperson added. “We are building more community diagnostic centres, offering evening and weekend appointments, and investing £70m in new radiotherapy machines to get patients faster access to the tests, checks and scans they require.”

While campaigners have welcomed the government’s stated commitments, they caution that without legal guarantees, improvements may remain inconsistent and dependent on regional capacity. The experts behind the Lancet paper argue that only by granting patients statutory rights — enforceable through the courts — can the NHS achieve the consistency, fairness, and speed that modern cancer care demands.

Their message is clear: the time for voluntary targets and unfulfilled promises is over. If the UK wants to close the gap with Europe’s best-performing health systems, it must ensure that every patient has the right to timely, high-quality treatment — not as a privilege, but as a matter of law.