NHS failing on key cancer target, with some patients waiting over 104 days

Almost all NHS trusts are missing a major cancer target, with some of the worst performers seeing only around half of patients on time, data shows.

Figures analysed by the Press Association for 2025 reveal a wide variation among trusts in England, with some patients facing extremely long waits of more than 104 days.

The NHS has a long-standing target for 85% of patients to wait no more than 62 days from their cancer referral being received to starting treatment.

This target has not been met at a national level since 2014.

The Government has also set an interim target of March 2026 for this figure to reach 75%.

The new analysis of NHS England figures shows just three of 119 acute trusts with comparable data hit or surpassed the 85% target last year, while only around a quarter made it above 75%.

The three managing to meet the 85% target in 2025 were Calderdale and Huddersfield (89.2% of patients), Homerton Healthcare (85.8%) and Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells (85.7%).

The bottom five performing trusts were Mid & South Essex (seeing just 45.4% of patients within 62 days), Sheffield Teaching Hospitals (50.1%), Hull University Teaching Hospitals (53.1%), Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn (54.2%) and Guy’s & St Thomas’ in London (55.1%).

Across England as a whole, 69.1% of patients (239,038 out of 345,847) began cancer treatment within 62 days last year, up slightly from 67.7% (221,380 out of 327,221) in 2024, but well below the target.

Some 65 of the 119 trusts saw a rise year on year in the percentage of patients seen within 62 days, while 54 saw a fall.

Four trusts made it above 85% in 2024 compared with three in 2025, with Calderdale and Huddersfield topping the list in both years.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, told PA: “Every cancer patient deserves access to timely, high-quality care.

“Although NHS staff are working hard to cope with increasing pressure on cancer services, far too many people still face unacceptable delays for vital treatment.

“The UK Government has set an important commitment to meet all cancer waiting times targets in England by 2029, but this can’t be achieved at the current rate of progress.

“More investment in NHS workforce and equipment will be crucial to deliver genuine change for patients across the country.”

Press Association analysis also shows that in a handful of trusts, at least one in seven patients who began cancer treatment in December 2025 had been waiting more than 104 days since an urgent referral.

At University Hospitals of Leicester, 13.7% of patients starting treatment in December had waited this long, as well as 14.5% of patients at Queen Elizabeth Hospital King’s Lynn, 14.9% at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and 15.5% at Guy’s and St Thomas’.

The proportion was as high as one in six patients at Hull University Teaching Hospitals (16.5%) and Mid and South Essex (17.0%).

Bea Taylor, fellow at the Nuffield Trust think tank, said the NHS “often struggles” to sustain progress on improving cancer waiting times, but “there isn’t time for stagnation” as trusts work towards the 85% target.

“For this to be achieved there is still a considerable gap to close, and the NHS will need to keep up momentum and build on it, instead of fluctuating throughout the year,” she said.

“The UK lags behind other countries in cancer outcomes and faces longstanding gaps in investment and staff, with key equipment like diagnostic scanners in short supply compared to countries like Germany, Sweden and Italy.

“These factors also made it more difficult for the NHS to recover cancer care post-pandemic.

“Taking advantage of new developments in digital technology could help, for example, by using AI to speed up diagnosis for patients, but making the UK ‘world-leading’ on cancer will take time and the commitment of scarce resources in a health service already under pressure.”

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is seeing and treating record numbers of patients for cancer, with more than three quarters of people receiving a diagnosis or all clear within four weeks, but there are still too many people experiencing unacceptably long waits for their first treatment.

“Our landmark National Cancer Plan sets out a clear roadmap to ensuring we are meeting all three cancer standards to see and treat patients on time over the next three years, with further improvements to make care more personalised and significantly improve survival.”

Kirsten Major, chief executive of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, said: “We previously had some of the best cancer waiting times, so we are concerned about the drop in performance and the impact on our patients.

“This is one of our top three priorities and as such, we have already taken actions to turn this around, including additional clinics and diagnostic capacity and changes to improve and speed up the care that we provide.”

She said the trust is “now seeing a consistent improvement in cancer waiting times each month”.

A spokesman for NHS Humber Health Partnership, representing Hull University Teaching Hospitals, said: “Our clinicians are driving forward an improvement plan to ensure patients can be diagnosed more quickly and begin their treatment as soon as possible.

“This plan involves a whole raft of measures changing how we work and how services are provided, from increasing diagnostics, theatres and clinics capacity.”

Dawn Scrafield, chief executive of Mid & South Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Improving cancer care is one of our key priorities – we know we need to do more and that our patients deserve better.

“We have invested in new technologies to help us treat cancer more quickly, and have also increased the provision of diagnostic tests, outpatient clinics and cancer surgery to reduce the time to diagnosis and treatment.

“We can already see our waiting times reducing in some cancers as we deliver extra clinics and improve theatre scheduling.”

A spokeswoman for Guy’s & St Thomas’ said “improving how quickly people can access our services is a key priority for the trust”, adding: “While we have made progress in the past year, we recognise that further improvement is required and we are ambitious about how quickly we can do this.”