£750m strategy on cancer care aims to save 5,000 lives a year

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the drive would be backed by more than 750m of Government investment over the next four years.

Mr Lansley said yesterday his aim was to deliver survival rates "among the best in Europe", through earlier diagnosis, increased access to radiotherapy, more screening and promoting awareness of how to spot the signs of cancer.

Most of the extra money – about 450m – will fund measures to ensure cancers are diagnosed earlier in their development.

GPs will be given the power to send patients directly for diagnostic tests without referral first to a consultant.

At the moment, some GPs have access to tests in primary care, including chest X-rays, but other scans have to be ordered by a specialist in hospital.

Under the new plans, GPs will be able to order tests themselves, which might include ultrasounds for ovarian cancer, MRI scans for brain tumours and colonoscopies for bowel cancer.

Doctors will still have the option to send patients through the rapid referral system to see a specialist within two weeks.

A 10m awareness campaign will encourage people to see a doctor if they show any sign of developing cancer symptoms, while funding will be provided for 1,200 more cancer specialists by 2012.

The strategy also confirms commitments to provide 50m for additional cancer drugs, a 200m cancer drugs fund each year until 2013, an expansion of radiotherapy services and the introduction of bowel cancer screening technology.

Mr Lansley said: "Cancer affects us all. Everyone will have a story of someone they love battling the disease. In those instances we all need to know that the NHS will be there for us.

"Our ambition is simple – to deliver survival rates among the best in Europe – and this strategy outlines how we will make our first steps towards this.

"The coalition Government's reforms of health and care services will drive improvements in what matters most to patients and their families – cancer outcomes.

"Our commitment is to save 5,000 extra lives a year from 2014/15 and that is what we will be measuring our success against."

Mr Lansley confirmed that the coalition would keep cancer waiting time targets inherited from the previous Labour administration, which promise cancer patients an outpatient appointment within two weeks of an urgent GP referral and treatment within two months.

Around 298,000 new cases of cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK, according to the NHS. More than one in three people will develop some form of cancer during their lifetime.

Studies carried out by Cancer Research UK of people diagnosed with the most common forms of the disease in 2000/2001 found 39 per cent of men and 52 per cent of women survive for 10 years or more.

Professor Sir Mike Richards, the national clinical director for cancer, said late diagnosis was the main reason why survival rates for cancer in England lagged behind those of other countries.

"This is why our strategy focuses on earlier diagnosis, which we will achieve through raising the public's awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer and also providing better access to diagnostic tests," said Prof Richards.

"But improving outcomes for people with cancer isn't just about improving survival rates. It is also about improving patients' experience of care and the quality of life for cancer survivors."