Wednesday 27 August 2025
Maggie's and other charities have come together as Once Cancer Voice to urge the government to deliver a bold, fully funded National Cancer Plan for England, amid predictions for a shocking rise in diagnoses.
New projections suggest that by 2040, a new person will be diagnosed with cancer in England every two minutes. In the 1970s, it was only every four minutes.
That's why a coalition of more than 60 cancer charities - known as One Cancer Voice - has united: to urge the UK government to deliver a bold, fully funded National Cancer Plan for England to save and improve more people's lives.
This new analysis shows that by 2040, around 6.3 million new cancer cases are expected across England, with around 1,110 people diagnosed every day.
Over the last 15 years there have been 5.5 million cases*. The new figures suggest that there will be 14.2% more cases over the next 15 years.
Some of the most common cancers are projected to reach record high cases**, including:
There are also projected to be over 63,000 cases in children and young people up to the age of 24.
Despite progress in survival - which has doubled since the 1970s - the rising number of cases threatens to add additional demands on an already overstretched NHS.
Without decisive action, England risks falling behind comparable countries in cancer outcomes***.
With a National Cancer Plan for England expected later this year, the One Cancer Voice, coalition has outlined six essential tests that the plan must meet to take England from world lagging to world leading on tackling cancer.
The charities involved in One Cancer Voice are also agreed that the plan needs to be fully funded. Without this, the tests cannot be passed.
Dame Laura Lee DBE, Chief Executive of Maggie's, said: “A cancer diagnosis is daunting and can turn your life upside down - these projections demonstrate the urgent need for action in the upcoming cancer plan and show the increasing need to place practical and emotional support at the forefront of cancer care.
“A fully funded national cancer plan presents a golden opportunity for the government to really transform cancer care in this country. Alongside steps to improve prevention, diagnosis and treatment, priority must be given to how we can ensure people are supported to live full, productive lives with and beyond cancer.
“At Maggie's, we support thousands of people to do this every year, and we would like to work with the government and NHS staff to embed our support offer into NHS care, so that anyone can access the help they need for as long as they need it, at every stage of cancer.”
*Based on 5,515,530 new cancer diagnoses between 2003-2005 to 2018-2019, 2021, compared with projected 6,298,554 new cancer diagnoses between 2025-2040.
**Cases refers to individual diagnoses rather than individual people. This method does not adjust for multiple diagnoses for the same individual over the modelled period
***Whilst the UK has made improvements in cancer survival in recent decades, analysis from the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership (ICBP) shows that the UK lags behind many countries with comparable levels of wealth, healthcare systems and robust data including Australia, Norway and Canada.
For example, England and Denmark had among the worst 5-year net survival rates for rectal cancer in 1995-1999, at 47.6% and 48.1% respectively. Though both countries improved their survival rates, England remained near the bottom of the league table at 62.2% (2010-2014, a change of 14.6%), whereas Denmark now has the third highest 5-year net survival rate among ICBP regions at 69.1% (2010-2014, a change of 21%).
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