More than 60,000 cancer patients in England ‘not getting nec...

More than 60,000 cancer patients a year are not getting the radiotherapy they need at all, while some patients in England face waits of up to six months to begin the treatment, according to research.

The situation is so dire that nearly 100 heads of radiotherapy and oncology – three-quarters of England’s radiotherapy leaders – have warned in an open letter that the government is failing patients.

International experts agree that more than half (53%) of all cancer patients will typically need radiotherapy, but in England, only 35% actually receive it. According to exclusive analysis of the latest NHS data by the charity Radiotherapy UK, that means 181,023 patients should have received radiotherapy but only 120,569 did, leaving 60,455 cancer patients a year in England who are not getting any radiotherapy cancer treatment at all.

Regional inequalities are rife. While 36% of patients in the south-west get radiotherapy, just 33.7% do in the south-east, with more than 10,000 patients missing out on the vital treatment.

The leading oncologist and chair of Radiotherapy UK, Prof Pat Price, said as a result, “thousands of cancer patients risk dying prematurely either because they are not getting radiotherapy at all or because of huge delays in starting radiation treatment”.

“Radiotherapy is one of the most cost-effective and curative cancer treatments we have,” she said. “It is not a ‘nice to have’, this is a life-saving treatment. The government must urgently invest in more machines, more staff and widening access to this vital treatment. Otherwise, the UK will remain stuck at the bottom of the cancer survival league tables, and patients will die needlessly.”

The findings follow a 2024 study of 780,000 people, comparing treatment for eight different cancers in each UK nation, Norway, Australia and Canada. The International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership found that people in the UK were treated less often with radiotherapy and faced considerably longer waits for treatments.

Latest NHS England figures show that in July 2025, 61% of patients waited longer than two months to begin treatment, including radiotherapy, and only 39% of patients in England began radiotherapy within 62 days from referral, against the national target of 85%.

Some patients have had to wait months to start radiotherapy. Alison was 64 when she was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer. Faced with a 15-week wait for surgery at her south coast hospital, Alison decided to blow her savings and go privately. When she found out she’d have to wait up to six months for radiotherapy, Alison decided to see if she could be seen quicker somewhere else, as she couldn’t afford any more private treatment. Her consultant referred her to the Christie cancer centre in Manchester, where she received her radiotherapy at the end of June.

Although Alison cannot praise the Christie enough for the care she received, having to travel more than 200 miles for her treatment was a traumatic experience.

“You know, I’ve been through a lot in my life, but the mental anguish that I was put through cannot be overestimated,” she said. “Really, it’s horrendous.

“I spent a week in Manchester going for radiotherapy every single day. I had to ring the little bell for the end of my treatment on my own, over 200 miles away from my family. That is wrong.”

Staff shortages on top of increased demand are fuelling delays. According to the Royal College of Radiologists, in 2024, seven in 10 cancer centre leaders said staff shortages were putting patient safety at risk. Experts report that radiotherapy machines are sitting idle in a number of trusts, or unable to operate at weekends, because there are no staff to operate them. One head of radiotherapy from a large trust in the east of England said the “devastating reality” is that the workforce is at breaking point.

“After 35 years in the radiotherapy profession, I can say with certainty that the situation we face today is the worst I’ve ever seen. Across the country, radiotherapy treatment machines sit idle. Not just because of technical faults, but because there simply aren’t enough staff to run them,” they said.

The crisis is so acute that 91 radiotherapy leaders working in centres across England have written to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, calling on the government to prioritise investment in radiotherapy or risk the forthcoming cancer plan failing.

“Radiotherapy has been held back by historical underinvestment and systemic under-prioritisation,” the letter says. “As a result, radiotherapy is often left out of major policy conversations and suffers from outdated equipment, slow technology adoption, chronic workforce shortages and stark regional inequalities.

“If we fail to fund and deliver on radiotherapy, [the promise of the government’s cancer plan] will be broken before it even begins.”

Mark Lawler, a professor of digital health at Queen’s University Belfast and chair of the International Cancer Benchmarking Partnership, said: “We are global laggards for both access and timeliness of radiotherapy, behind the likes of Denmark, France, and for lung cancer even Labrador and Newfoundland. I never thought I’d hear myself saying that.”

Dr Stephen Harden, the president of the Royal College of Radiologists, said most patients faced “agonising radiotherapy delays”.

“Amid soaring demand for cancer care, staff shortages and patient delays will only get worse if nothing is done to increase the workforce. While the government has invested in new Linac radiotherapy machines, staff shortages at some cancer centres mean they can’t offer treatment on evenings and weekends.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has been approached for comment.