Cancer services have been streamlined

About 99% of patients deemed in need of urgent attention are seeing a specialist within two weeks.

The Department of Health hailed the figures as a sign the NHS had "turned a corner" in cancer care.

But cancer experts said there were still patients who experienced unacceptable delays in obtaining treatment.

Nearly 110,000 people were seen by a specialist within 14 days between October and December in England last year.

That is double the number seen that quickly in January 2001.

Professor Mike Richards, the Government's Cancer Tsar, described the figures as "fantastic".

He said: "I have no doubt we are turning a corner.

But he added: " I have no doubt we have further to go.

"For the NHS as a whole this idea of service improvement is really only about three or four years old, starting around the time of the NHS Plan in 2000."

The Department of Health also revealed improvements in other areas of cancer care.

Targets

Figures showed 100% of children with cancer were waiting less than a month from urgent GP referral to treatment - as were 100% of patients with acute leukaemia.

Targets for breast cancer were also encouraging.

The one-month wait from diagnosis to treatment was achieved in 98% of cases, while the two-month wait from urgent GP referral to breast cancer treatment reached 97.2%.

By the end of 2005, the two-month target from referral to treatment will apply to all types of cancer.

Breast cancer referral targets have improved

The improvements are being attributed to streamlining of services and making the most of capacity available.

Prof Richards pointed to progress in radiology, including tackling the shortage of radiologists by doubling the numbers in training, as well as endoscopy to diagnose bowel cancers.

Health Secretary John Reid also welcomed the figures.

He said: "Cancer and coronary heart disease are Britain's biggest killers but the hard work of staff, backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of extra investment means we are making real headway in tackling them."

Room for improvement

He said streamlining of services was being passed on to patients in the form of better and quicker treatment at every stage of their care.

There are still instances of unacceptable delays and it is important that we work together to reduce these even further Gill Oliver, Macmillan Cancer Relief

Macmillan Cancer Relief, which provides information and support to cancer patients and their families, has welcomed the findings, but claims there are still inadequacies in the care system.

Macmillan head of Service Development Gill Oliver, said: "There are still instances of unacceptable delays and it is important that we work together to reduce these even further.

"We believe that the views and experiences of people affected by cancer can contribute to the improvement of services by highlighting difficulties and making suggestions for different ways of working.

Across Macmillan we are working with our partners to explore new ways of working, reviewing processes and systems to make further improvements.

"People affected by cancer are increasingly keen to take more control over what happens to them - professionals and patients will, in future work more closely in partnership and this too will help to make even more improvements in the figures published today."