Nearly all NHS trusts failing to hit cancer target

According to BBC results, nearly every hospital trust in England is failing to meet the main NHS waiting time target for cancer care. Only three hospitals out of 121 in England are treating cancer patients quickly enough - within 62 days - with experts warning that delays could put lives in jeopardy. The government acknowledged that waits were too long, but that it was investing in the NHS to improve results. According to study, getting medical attention quickly is critical, with every four-week delay reducing patient survival by an average of 10%. The BBC findings, according to Dr Timothy Hanna, a leading global expert on cancer who supervised the study, were "worrying.

"It's not a few outliers. Trusts in England are expected to not meet these waiting time targets, and they are set for a reason: timely intervention can increase survival rates.

Paul, a stage three colon cancer sufferer, is one of many patients who have been delayed. In January 2024, his first biopsy was performed when cancer was suspected. Despite his best efforts, he did not hear any more from his cancer clinics before January this year. In February, he underwent colon surgery.

The waiting was horrible, and now I think that if I had been treated properly and not had to wait so long, I may not have made it to stage three,

Paul said. He is expected to have more surgery next year.

Why hospitals are struggling

Hospitals claim that the demand for testing and care is outstripping capacity. The BBC has also been warned of times when things go wrong, including scanning and radiotherapy machines' failure, GP referral letters being lost, and staffing issues - which means cancellations have been postponed until the last minute. BBC Verify examined the results of every major cancer service in England over the past 12 months, from September 2024 to August 2025. Each step of the cancer journey has set goals. Hospitals should: Over one out of every four trusts has been missing all three objectives over the past 12 months, according to hospitals. Several of the main regional cancer hubs say they are having trouble with inherited waits. Patients from smaller hospitals often get complicated patients transferred to them from larger hospitals.

'We can't deliver care we want'

Royal Free NHS Trust in London, which is ranked 109 out of 121 for 62-day waits, is one service that is struggling with inherited waits; however, like so many low ranking trusts, the results are improving. Patients in south-east England are served by the center as a nationwide kidney cancer center. And, although it has some new equipment, including robotic surgery theatres, administration difficulties could result in operations being suspended, which may lead to operations being cancelled. The theatre remained empty the day before the BBC broadcast a report at the hospital, as a patient had not received a letter confirming surgery. Radiotherapy is another area that the Royal Free wishes to improve. One of its two machines is more than ten years old, the time when they should be retired because they are less efficient and less reliable.

We can't provide the service we want to and it can lead to patient delays,

Claire Hartill, the Royal Free's head of radiotherapy, said.

We need a newer machine; it provides better care at a faster rate, so it can accommodate more people per hour.

The trust submitted a business plan to the government earlier this year to purchase a new machine, but it was turned down.

How best-performers are doing it

Calderdale and Huddersfield, East and North Hertfordshire, and Bolton NHS Trusts are among the few cancer services achieving the 62-day target over the past 12 months. Streamlined communication, state-of-the-art technology, and joined-up team efforts seem to be the most important. Paul, a man in his 50s, was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, formerly part of East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust. On the day he was told his illness, he also met with a surgeon and an oncologist to discuss his treatment choices. He chose either a long line of radiotherapy or to have the prostate surgically removed. It was scheduled in once he had made up his mind to have an operation. Robotic surgery will be used for his surgery. It not only reduces side effects but also speeds up recovery. Paul will only be in hospital for one night, so the bed he uses will be free for another patient after only 24 hours.

He [the surgeon] took his diary out, flicked through a few pages, and gave me a date. I said, that's a Saturday. Yes, I work Saturdays,

the surgeon says. More actions are being taken to reduce capacity issues in the chemotherapy ward. Patients on certain types of chemotherapy will be able to learn how to do the therapy at home, thanks to a new initiative, one of the first in England. Josephine Hoskins is one of them. She has to have chemotherapy injections every three weeks and lives between London and Devon. It's revolutionised things for me, she said. Moving patients like Josephine to a'at-home chemo' opens up a new slot for someone who needs more complicated therapy.

'Determined to improve'

The government said it was determined to raise waiting times. By the government early next year, a new cancer plan is expected to be published. It comes after cancer was designated as a core priority in the 10-year NHS strategy, which was announced in July.

Cancer care is a priority as we return from more than a decade of neglect of our NHS,

a Department of Health spokeswoman said.

We're working hard to ensure patients receive timely diagnosis and treatment,

says the CEO, who's expanding community diagnostic centers, offering evening and weekend appointments, and spending £70 million on new radiotherapy equipment to get patients closer to the tests, checks, and scans they need.

But ministers will struggle to solve the problems outlined by the BBC's study, according to Sarah Scobie of the Nuffield Trust health think tank.

The truth for the government is that making meaningful progress on waiting times will be extremely difficult.

About the data

Official cancer waiting time statistics from NHS England were reviewed by BBC News for the 12 months from September 2024 to August 2025. The NHS releases reports every month, but we've looked at the results for the whole year. We investigated how acute trusts did against the three national goals. Specialists in non-cancer, such as eye or orthopaedic hospitals, were refused admission. According to their results on the 62-day survey, the entire waiting period between urgent referral and starting therapy is divided by the patient.