Report by leading cancer experts criticises ministers for scrapping dedicated plan to tackle disease

UK cancer care is in crisis and patients will die because of ministers’ decision to axe a dedicated plan to tackle the disease, leading cancer experts have warned.

Waiting times for NHS cancer treatment are at a record high and it is expected there will be 2,000 extra cancer patients a week by 2040. In January, the government scrapped its longstanding cancer plan and instead merged it into a wider “major conditions strategy” that also covers a range of other major diseases.