
There is unacceptable variation in waiting times for treatment for a range of cancers in England, according to exclusive analysis by Cancer Research UK carried out for BBC News.
Patients with head and neck, bowel and gynaecological cancers are likely to face the longest wait times, with just over half being seen within the target time frame of 62 days.
In comparison, patients with blood, bone marrow, and skin cancers are most likely to start treatment in a timely manner.
The charity said the differences were putting lives at risk, highlighting research showing that delaying surgery by four weeks increases the risk of death from many cancers by six to eight percent.
Jane Gray, from Leicestershire, died in 2021, aged 64, from kidney failure caused by bladder cancer.
Despite having a history of cancer, Jane received an urgent referral from her GP and waited 74 days to start treatment.
Bladder cancer is a type of urinary cancer and, according to an analysis by Cancer Research UK, has some of the longest waiting times for treatment.

Jayne’s daughter Amy, 38, said: “Waiting for her treatment to start has been torture. She should have been made a priority.”
“We will always wonder if things would have been different if she had been seen sooner.”
Cancer Research UK said a variety of factors were behind the differences in waiting times, including a severe shortage of specialist staff for some cancers and the fact that some cancers take longer to diagnose and are more complex to diagnose.
Some people get more referrals than others.
For example, the death of “Bowelbabe” Deborah James led to increased awareness of colon cancer, which resulted in a surge in colon cancer referrals.
Naser Turabi, head of evidence and practice at Cancer Research UK, said such long wait times were unacceptable.
“Cancer patients have the right to timely treatment, regardless of the type of cancer they have,” he said.
“The new administration has a great opportunity to turn things around and ensure we achieve our cancer treatment wait time targets by the end of this Congress.”
“However, there are no quick fixes and long-term planning and reforms are essential.
“A 10-year plan to provide the NHS with extra staff and key diagnostic equipment will reduce waiting lists and save lives.”
The 62-day target has not been met for the following reasons:
England 2015 Scotland 2012 Wales 2010 Northern Ireland 2009
And Cancer Research UK’s modelling predicts that unless performance improves, more than 300,000 cancer patients will miss targets over the next five years in England alone, with referral numbers expected to increase by more than 20%.
The latest analysis comes just a week after a Government report by Lord Darge, an NHS surgeon general and an independent peer, harshly criticised the health service’s performance.
A Department of Health and Social Care official said: “Lord Darge’s research has found that NHS patients are more likely to die from cancer than patients in other countries.”
“This is completely unacceptable.”
The official said the department would publish a 10-year plan to fundamentally reform the “broken NHS” in the spring.
“We fight cancer on all fronts through prevention, diagnosis, treatment and research to get people the care they need,” the official added.
NHS England said more needed to be done to tackle “unacceptably long waiting times”, but there were signs of progress, with the health service now carrying out more tests than ever before and an improvement in the overall number of people starting treatment within 62 days.