Our Work - Northern Cancer Alliance Northern Cancer Alliance

We bring together NHS teams, local authorities, charities, and community partners across the North East and North Cumbria to transform cancer outcomes.

Our work spans the entire cancer pathway — from prevention and early diagnosis to treatment, personalised care, and helping people live well beyond cancer.

We are committed to delivering the national ambitions set out in both the National Cancer Plan and the NHS 10‑Year Cancer Plan, ensuring that national priorities are translated into meaningful improvements for people in our region. This includes:

Detecting cancer earlier.
Reducing waiting times and improving the speed of diagnosis and treatment.
Tackling health inequalities.
Improving patient experience and quality of life.
Supporting personalised care at every stage.

Across this section you can learn more about the National Cancer Plan and explore our priority programmes — including Awareness and Early Diagnosis, Faster Diagnosis Standards, Treatment and Care, Innovation, and Workforce — and see how we are working with communities and partners to deliver these long‑term ambitions.

Awareness, Early Diagnosis and Screening

Our work is driven by the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambitions for cancer, aiming to ensure that by 2030, three out of four cancers are diagnosed at an early stage, survival rates continue to improve, and the gap in early diagnosis between the most and least deprived communities is narrowed. Our work spans the entire […]

Innovation

Innovation is at the heart of transforming cancer care across the North East and North Cumbria. Our ambition is simple yet bold: to harness cutting-edge technology, digital solutions, and genomic medicine to improve outcomes, reduce inequalities, and create a seamless experience for patients and clinicians. Why Innovation Matters The NHS 10-Year Plan sets out three […]

People and Communities

Why working with people and communities matters to us Working with people and communities is not an optional extra – it’s how we build better cancer services. It ensures that care is shaped by those who use it, that inequalities are addressed, and that every voice matters. For a Cancer Alliance, this is not just […]

Quality and Experience

We believe that high-quality cancer care is about more than clinical outcomes – it’s about the experience of every person affected by cancer. Our work focuses on ensuring that care is safe, effective, and delivered with compassion, while listening to what matters most to patients, carers, and families. By embedding quality improvement into everything we […]

Treatment and Care

Variation in cancer treatment and care can happen for many reasons, including differences in local services, patient needs, and how care is delivered across the region. Whilst some variation is expected and clinically appropriate, our goal is to ensure that all patients receive high-quality, timely, and consistent care, regardless of where they live or receive […]

Workforce

The ongoing transformation of cancer services to address the evolving needs of the population is contingent upon having an adequate workforce capable of delivering new treatments, supporting innovative approaches, and enhancing patient experiences. The new national cancer plan acknowledges the importance of the cancer workforce being at the heart of improving patient outcomes and quality […]

The National Cancer Plan

What is the National Cancer Plan? The National Cancer Plan for England sets out a long‑term, 10‑year approach to improving cancer outcomes, experience and equity across the country. Published in February 2026, the plan describes how the NHS, working with partners, will transform cancer care so that by 2035 three in four people diagnosed with […]