Key stats: Cancer & Radiotherapy

Cancer

• 1 in 2 people will get cancer in their lifetime.
• Half of all cancer patients will require radiotherapy.
•  1 in 4 of the population will need radiotherapy at some point in their lives.

Radiotherapy

• Radiotherapy only receives 5% of the cancer budget, compared to 10% in similar nations
• Radiotherapy is the second most effective cancer cure, necessary for 4 out of every 10 cancer cures.
• Radiotherapy uses targeted beams of radiation to kill cancer cells, while radiology produces images for diagnosis.
• Access to radiotherapy in England is lower than the international standard (50%), with only 27% of cancer patients receiving it as their primary treatment.
• Radiotherapy is extremely high tech and at £3k-£7k per cure, it is the most cost-effective of the three main cancer treatments.

Delay

• Approximately 3.4 million people live too far from a radiotherapy treatment centre.
• Delays in starting cancer treatment can increase the risk of death by 10% for every 4 weeks.
• Lack of equipment, England has 4.8 radiotherapy treatment machines per million, compared to Italy (6.9) and France (8.5)
• Only 59% of patients received treatment within the 62-day treatment target time.

Radiotherapy Quick Wins

• £200 million would update all the estimated 76 radiotherapy treatment machines (LINACS) about to go out of date,
  speeding up service and benefitting 50,000 patients per year
• £45 million on Surface Guided Radiotherapy (SGRT), a fast and accurate British innovative technology, could reduce
  waiting times for radiotherapy by 1.8 weeks nationwide. These machines can be installed over one weekend in a
  radiotherapy centre