National Cancer Plan survey guide

We understand that not everyone will have responded to a government call for evidence before, so whether this is the first or fifth time you have filled one out, we have outlined a few tips below to help you.   

• If you are providing written responses – consider using a computer or tablet, rather than your phone, as this will allow you to type out your responses better.   

• Your response will have the greatest impact if it comes from you as an individual, so write in your own style, and try to avoid copy and pasting from this guide.   

• Make sure you set an appropriate amount of time aside to consider your answers to the questions. You can come back to them, but we recommend completing the survey in one go.   

• For the open-ended questions, where you type out your own ideas, prepare your answers beforehand in a separate document, like in Word, Google Docs or even a notes app on your phone, and then copy these across into the call for evidence.   

• Where possible, include your experiences, including any experiences you may have had of cancer, and other evidence to support your recommendations. However, avoid including any information that could identify you or somebody else e.g. name, age, job title or email address where it is not asked for.    

The survey is accessible and easy to navigate. If you have any technical problems, please log the issue by clicking the ‘contact’ button on the bottom right of the screen. Do not contact Cancer Research UK as we cannot help with this type of problem.   

However, we can help guide you through the survey and answer any questions you have about how to fill it out. Email campaigning@cancer.org.uk for advice. 

Make sure you read through the call for evidence page before starting the survey. Once you have read through this, press the ‘Start’ button.  

Here, you need to specify in what capacity you are responding to the survey. Since Cancer Research UK is providing you with this guide, you might feel unsure how to answer this question. Here are what the options mean:  

• An individual sharing my personal views and experiences: Select this answer if you are a person affected by cancer who will be sharing your, or a loved one’s personal experience of cancer and your own ideas.  

• An individual sharing my professional views: Select this answer if you are a cancer researcher, clinician, or similar professional sharing your findings and recommendations.   

• On behalf of an organisation: Although Cancer Research UK is encouraging you to submit your response, you are not submitting your thoughts on behalf of the charity and should not select this option. Our Policy team is submitting a response on behalf of the charity.

Here, you are asked to detail whether you have personal experience of cancer or cancer services, and if so, provide some more information about the treatment you or the person you care for has received.

Remember that this information will be kept anonymous and confidential.   

Depending on how you answered section 2, you will be sent to a section titled ‘for individuals’, or ‘for professionals’. The questions are largely the same, and ask for personal details on your nationality, where you live, ethnicity, age and sex, which you can answer if you are comfortable to do so.   

Like all answers you provide in the call for evidence, this information will kept anonymous and confidential. To find out more, please see the privacy policy here.  

You may also optionally provide your email address, which will make it easier to come back to your answers if you need more time to complete them.  

This section asks you to select the three risk factors that the government should prioritise to prevent more cancers in the future, you can choose up to 3.   

Around 4 in 10 cancers are preventable, and the list on this page in the survey shows the risk factors that typically cause these cancers.  

When answering this question, it may be helpful to consider:  

• Tobacco and obesity are the biggest cancer risk factors.  

• Tobacco is the biggest cause of cancer in the UK. 2 out 3 people who smoke will die from smoking.   

• Completely stopping smoking is the best thing that those who do smoke can do for their health.  

• Smoking, living with overweight or obesity, and harm from alcohol is more common in deprived areas of the country, so it is important that the National Cancer Plan specifically focuses on reducing this in these communities.  

• There are other risk factors that can also cause cancer. Cancer Research UK’s call for evidence response also speaks to the importance of action being taken to prevent cancers caused by alcohol, UV, air pollution and HPV infection.

This section asks you to consider what actions the government and NHS should take to diagnose more cancers at an earlier stage.  

If you, or someone you know, has experienced a cancer diagnosis, it is important that you draw on this experience to respond to this section. Were there barriers or issues in receiving this diagnosis? If so, what were they? What may have helped in detecting and diagnosing the cancer earlier?  

Below are some considerations you may want to bear in mind while answering this question:  

• The earlier a cancer is diagnosed, the more likely it is that treatment will be successful. Progress is being made in this area, but it has been slow and is contributing to the gap between cancer outcomes in the UK and other similar countries. 

• The positive impact that a renewed government commitment to early diagnosis could have in driving ambitious action in this area.  

• How improving existing screening programmes, such as bowel and cervical cancer screening, and achieving a full roll out of targeted lung cancer screening could help detect and diagnose these cancers at an earlier stage. 

• The benefits of improving symptom awareness through local and national awareness campaigns, with a particular focus on addressing inequalities in health knowledge and seeking help. 

• How GPs having better, direct access to necessary tests could help diagnose cancers earlier. 

This section of the survey asks you to respond on what can be done to improve access to cancer services and the quality of treatment that cancer patients receive.  

A cancer diagnosis can be difficult news to receive and process, and it is important that patients receive timely access to treatment, to give it the best chance of working. Delays in access to this treatment is extremely difficult, and it is important that patients receive equal, best practice treatment.  

Genomic testing can be used to identify if someone has a hereditary risk of developing cancer, target innovative treatments to a patient’s cancer or match someone to a clinical trial. At the moment, NHS genomic services are stretched, resulting in delays to test results that could inform treatment decisions. As part of the wider picture on cancer treatment, Cancer Research UK’s call for evidence response will speak to the need to expand NHS genomic laboratory and workforce capacity.

We’d encourage you to draw from your own experience to respond to this section. It may also be helpful to consider the following:    

• Currently, some cancer patients have better access to the treatments they need than others. Some people start their treatment faster and receive higher quality treatments than others. 

• How measures to help diagnose cancers earlier and ensure cancer patients have timely access to treatment could help improve cancer outcomes.  

• The impact that expanding genomic workforce capacity could have to improving access to clinical trials and innovations such as cancer vaccines.  

• How measures could be taken to ensure that all patients receive equitable access to treatment, reducing inequalities in care across people diagnosed or recovering from cancer.  

• The impact that changes such as an increased workforce and better data collection could have on improving swift access to high-quality treatments.

This section of the survey asks you to contribute your thoughts on what can be done to improve the support that those diagnosed with cancer, and those living with and beyond cancer, receive.  

In answering this question, you can draw on your own experience of a cancer diagnosis, whether this be yours, or a diagnosis of someone you know. In your cancer journey, or that of your loved one, you may want to consider what worked well, and what could have worked better.

Support for living with and beyond cancer is a vitally important area, which Macmillan Cancer Support carry out significant policy and advocacy work on. We recommend you check out their website if you would like to research your recommendations.

This section focuses on the opportunity that research and innovation presents for the NHS and improving cancer outcomes in England, particularly in bringing more discoveries from lab bench to bedside.   

Responding to this question may feel a bit trickier than the others. When answering this question, it may be helpful to consider the following:  

• How important it is that the NHS prioritises research, as well as delivering clinical care. 

• The need to create a research enabled NHS, which could be aided by carving out dedicated time for clinicians to engage in research. 

• The positive impact that allowing more patients to take part in clinical trials could have on developing more innovative treatments.

• The need to bring more of the discoveries made in the lab proven to successfully treat cancer to patients quicker, by removing some of the barriers currently standing in the way of uptake. 

• That currently, health data in the UK is often difficult, costly, and time consuming for researchers to access due to multiple access points all requiring similar forms. A single centrally coordinated access point could speed this up, allowing them to focus more of their time on research.  

• How the use of de-identified health data (data that has had identifying markers like names, or addresses, removed) could help drive new discoveries. If you’d be happy for researchers to use this data, what safeguards would you want to put in place?

This section seeks to understand your opinion on areas which could have the most impact in addressing cancer inequalities.   

Currently, there are unfair and avoidable differences in the number of cancer cases and in cancer outcomes across England. Often, these inequalities are most stark in the most deprived communities. The National Cancer Plan must ensure that cancer outcomes are improved for everyone, no matter where they live or their background.   

How do you think the government could address these inequalities? It may be helpful to consider the following when answering this question:  

• How meaningful public health interventions and population-wide measures could reduce the stark difference in the number of preventable causes of cancer in certain communities.  

• The potential for targeted interventions to address differences in awareness of symptoms and barriers to participating in cancer screening in certain communities.

• The importance of collaboration with local communities to make sure that services and interventions reflect their needs.

• How the quality and availability of demographic data can enhance understanding of cancer and health inequalities, support the planning of interventions, and facilitate research.

This section seeks to understand your views on what elements of cancer research and care should be prioritised in the upcoming National Cancer Plan.

Here, you could reflect on your answers given so far in the survey, and use your own experience to think about where the government may be able to have the most impact in transforming cancer outcomes in England.  

When answering this question, it may be useful to think about:  

• The impact that consistently missed cancer waiting times targets are having, meaning that more patients are waiting too long to receive diagnoses or start treatments. 

• The importance of investing in diagnostic equipment and supporting primary care, to bring down waiting lists and make sure the NHS can manage as demand increases.  

• How investing in NHS technology could increase accessibility, speed up diagnostics, and make it easier to roll out further technologies. 

• Preventing cancer in the first place would save lives and reduce pressure on the NHS.  

• Variation in access to treatment and early diagnosis, as well as the number of preventable cancer cases in specific areas of the population.

Here, you will see a list of all the questions that you have answered or had the opportunity to answer.   

If you click the ‘Change’ button on the right of the screen, you will be able to go back and amend any existing answers should you want to change, or add to your answer.  

After making any changes, click through the survey using the ‘Next’ button.  

This section asks for feedback on the survey you have participated in. The section is optional, but it is beneficial for the government to hear from you on your opinion on the survey.  

In the first question, ‘How did you hear about the call for evidence?’, you should answer ‘Direct communication from third sector organisation or regulatory organisation’.  

You have now passed through all the questions in the survey. Make sure to press ‘submit’ to make sure that your responses are sent off and counted in the call for evidence!   

Once you’ve pressed ‘submit’ you won’t be able to go back and edit your answers.