UK National Cancer Plan Survey 2025
- Breaking BRAF
- Feb 21
- 6 min read
The National Cancer Plan seeks to improve the experience of and outcomes for cancer patients and their carers across the NHS. The government asks for our opinions from time-to-time through a 'Call for Evidence' survey. You can take part in the latest Call for Evidence survey NOW as an individual to help shape the national cancer plan. It’s so important that we register our opinions, our experience and our suggestions and get our voices heard.
We have responded as an organisation, based upon our annual survey results and upon what we see in our daily communication with our community.
The following is Breaking BRAF’s organisational response to the national cancer plan survey 2025. We were limited to 500 words in each explanation. We were limited to the survey’s topics.
Prevention and awareness
Which cancer risk factors should the government and the NHS focus on to improve prevention and increase awareness?
Choices included the ubiquitous: smoking, obesity/diet, alcohol and exercise.
We chose: ‘Other’
Being female! Our recent patient survey shows the risk to women being diagnosed at later stages is far greater because early symptoms are put down to common female issues such as periods, post natal depression, etc.
We said:
Regarding early onset bowel cancer: We have survey results which show that GP’s are not routinely ordering simple FIT tests when female patients presenting with bowel cancer symptoms are then diagnosed with iron deficiency anaemia. GP’s seem content that the anaemia is the problem, whereas in some cases it is in fact the symptom of a much larger problem.
Early diagnosis
What actions should the government and the NHS take to help diagnose cancer at an earlier stage?
We chose:
Support timely and effective referrals from primary care (for example, GPs)
Make improvements to existing cancer screening programmes, including increasing uptake
Increase diagnostic test access and capacity
We said:
These are the three that most closely match our own patients’ experience. However, with over 50% of our patients having to be diagnosed as an emergency in A&E more needs to be done in educating GP’s as to how better to test for bowel cancer. FIT tests are cheap and effective. Recent study data shows that two consecutive FIT tests find 100% of bowel cancer. At a cost of £4 per FIT test, this is a very cheap way to initially help anyone presenting with symptoms and especially women of a menstruating age to be better served before ending up as an emergency.
Treatment
What actions should the government and the NHS take to improve access to cancer services and the quality of cancer treatment that patients receive?
We chose:
Improve communication with patients, ensuring they have all the information they need
Increase the availability of physical and mental health interventions before and during cancer treatment
Increase the use of genomic (genetic) testing and other ways of supporting personalised treatment
We said:
Patients must be given far greater levels of information about their cancer. For example, patients with BRAF mutated bowel cancer often end up coming to us because their Oncologists and CNS’ have not explained their cancer to them. Often just told ‘too much detail for you to worry about’ - this is not a decision that should be made on behalf of a patient without their permission. Patients are entitled to a full explanation and should be given the option to ‘opt out’ of being told greater detail rather than having to ask to 'opt in'.
All cancer patients should have access to an emergency/urgent care service that negates the need to sit in A&E for hours on end. This has significantly negatively impacted many of our patients who have become much more unwell as a result. This is not acceptable. Patients on cancer treatment should have their own triage system and should be able to access at least a nursing opinion on a side effect or temperature spike without having to sit in a crowded A&E waiting room for hours on end.
Genomic testing is critical. A lot of our patients have paid privately for this. But the NHS and NICE must find a way to give patients access to personalised medicine as a result of genomic testing, otherwise it is pointless. For example, when genomic testing shows that a bowel cancer patient has a unique genetic marker that means they may benefit from a treatment that is only approved by NICE for lung cancer treatment - there must be a way to quickly approve exceptional use cases for the results that will come out of genomic testing.
Living with and beyond cancer
What can the government and the NHS do to improve the support that people diagnosed with cancer, treated for cancer, and living with and beyond cancer receive?
We chose:
Provide more comprehensive, integrated and personalised support after an individual receives a cancer diagnosis and (if applicable) after treatment
Increase the number and availability of cancer co-ordinators, clinical nurse specialists and other staff who support patients
Improve access to high-quality, supportive palliative and end-of-life care for patients with incurable cancer
We said:
As per our previous explanation with regards to better patient information on diagnosis.
Many of our patients have reported that they have not ever been allocated a CNS during their treatment. Every patient needs an interface into ‘the system’ which is what the CNS role is designed to achieve. Without this critical interface, patients are left to fend for themselves against the mass that is ‘the NHS’. Mistakes are made and handover communications are lost.
Pain clinics and Palliative care is often badly lacking and is certainly badly joined-up in many hospital trusts, when they depend upon Community nursing teams and external organisations such as Macmillan and Hospices.
Research and innovation
How can the government and the NHS maximise the impact of data, research and innovation regarding cancer and cancer services?
We chose:
Improve patient access to clinical trials,
Increase research on rarer and less common cancers
Speed up the adoption of innovative diagnostics and treatments into the NHS
We said:
Since we left the EU, pharmaceutical companies have told us that they find it increasingly hard to run patient trials that include the UK. This cannot be an acceptable situation. We have to encourage - probably through offering favourable terms in comparison to other countries - the availability of drug and diagnostic trials.
We must improve our focus on rare cancers, especially when they are becoming less rare and more prevalent in younger age groups. BRAF mutated bowel cancer falls into these categories.
We must have a way of quickly adopting innovative treatments - the current bureaucratic process is not fit for purpose. It aligns with the metaphor of trying to manage worldwide air traffic control by using an abacus. Wholly unfit for purpose and not in alignment with technology.
Inequalities
In which of these areas could the government have the most impact in reducing inequalities in incidence (cases of cancer diagnosed in a specific population) and outcomes of cancer across England?
We chose:
Raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer, reducing barriers and supporting timely response to symptoms
Improving the access to and quality of cancer treatment
Improving and achieving a more consistent experience across cancer referral, diagnosis, treatment and beyond
We said:
Early diagnosis of early-onset cancers is being hampered by the over-reliance on all the ‘usual suspects’ used as factors in raising awareness - often early-onset cancers are genetic (both inherited and not) and are not defined by lifestyle choices. This deters otherwise fit and healthy younger people from seeking help as they don’t fall into ‘lifestyle’ categories of risk.
Early access to cancer treatment is key and targets are not being met far too often.
We’ve already described the inequalities we have found in early onset bowel cancer diagnostics at a General Practice level and the same also occurs when presenting at A&E. Women are highly susceptible to their symptoms being written off as ‘other women’s problems’ and this is not acceptable.
Priorities for the national cancer plan
What are the most important priorities that the national cancer plan should address?
We chose:
Earlier diagnosis of cancer
Improving the access to and quality of cancer treatment, including meeting the cancer waiting time standards
Reducing inequalities in cancer incidence, diagnosis and treatment
(We did not comment on these choices as we had covered these off in our response to other questions)
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