NHS publishes tech-laden cancer plan

The Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) has launched a 10-year National Cancer Plan, aiming to overhaul cancer care in the UK by utilising technological innovations.

This includes increasing the use of robotic surgery, particularly for neck and gynaecological cancers, aiming to bolster the number of procedures done yearly from 70,000 in 2023-24 to half a million by 2035.

Robotic surgery has, according to the NHS, the potential to reduce complications and time spent in hospital for patients. By March 2026, the government will create and publish a specification for a national registry for robotically assisted surgery. The government plans to put training standards in place for surgeons, ensuring they have the skills needed to operate with the help of robotics.

The cancer plan includes the use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help both with clinical tasks such as radiology, and with administrative tasks such as booking and workflow optimisation tools.

“We will harness new technology to speed up access to treatment,” the cancer plan said. “In the next decade, the ways in which treatment decisions are made will be transformed – technology will make them faster, more accurate and more personalised. State-of-the-art radiotherapy machines will be able to deliver more treatment, more effectively – meaning better outcomes and shorter waits.

“AI will be the assistant in the pockets of the oncology workforce – supporting better treatment planning and cutting down admin to create more ‘time to care’. Through this plan, we will scale, diffuse and prepare for this innovation, so patients can get from diagnosis to treatment as quickly as possible – and so, at the same time, ensure that each individual gets the treatment that is right for them as an individual.”

The government aims to take advantage of advances in genomic sequencing and plans to offer more patients access to genomic testing. Its ambitions is that, by 2035, every patient who needs a genomic test to support treatment will get one.

All of these innovations will be underpinned by the NHS App, which will act as a “front door” to cancer care, and will join up the single patient record with genomics and lifestyle data to provide patients with personalised risk profiles and advice.

Health and social care secretary Wes Streeting said surviving cancer “shouldn’t come down to who won the lottery of life”.

“Thanks to the revolution in medical science and technology, we have the opportunity to transform the life chances of cancer patients,” he added. “Our cancer plan will invest in and modernise the NHS, so that opportunity can be seized and our ambitions realised.”

As part of the government’s cancer plan, it has launched an NHS pilot using AI and robotic technology to help clinicians to detect cancer earlier. The project, which recently officially launched at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, uses AI software to analyse lung scans and flag up small lumps likely to be cancerous. A robotic camera is then used to guide surgeons performing biopsies of these lumps.

This comes as the NHS has launched a lung cancer screening programme, which will see 1.4 million people invited for a lung cancer check next year.

Technology secretary Liz Kendall said that emerging technologies such as AI and robotics will be a “game changer”.

“This is what it means to be a world leader in technology – leaving no stone unturned to make sure it delivers for every community and that its potential is being harnessed to deliver cutting-edge services which change lives for the better.”