The latest Cancer Reform Strategy report to the Department of Health indicates that up to 10,000 lives could be saved each year if cancer was diagnosed earlier.

National Cancer Director, Professor Mike Richards, has been quoted on the BBC as saying "raising awareness and promoting early diagnosis are essential if we are to bring cancer survival rates up to the level of the best of Europe".

The report indicates that late diagnosis is a key factor in poor survival rates associated with the three most common cancers in the UK (lung, colon and breast cancer).

It stands to reason that quick access to primary care and effective screening programmes are a key step in helping to save thousands of lives in the UK each year.

The report also commits the government to improving GP's access to diagnostic tests, an area which Blossoms has focussed on extensively in recent years, for example, with the introduction of Blossoms Breast Care service, which builds upon traditional screening programmes to offer quick, comfortable screening with instant results from any secondary diagnostics (ultrasound, biopsy etc.).

Survival rates for most cancers are higher when early diagnosis is made and any subsequent treatment is likely to be less invasive or disruptive to normal life, as well as costing less than complicated or extended treatment.

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