Doctors warn new cancer plan must end 'hidden rationing' of radiotherapy

iStock.com/Mark Kostich

By Emma Wilkinson

In anticipation of the release of the long-awaited new NHS cancer plan, heads of radiotherapy departments have issued a mass plea for the government to improve access to the treatment and counter outdated ideas about safety.

When Dr Ashleigh Williams was diagnosed with stage three inflammatory breast cancer, she received chemotherapy relatively quickly followed by surgery. Then, she had to wait. It was an agonising nine weeks until she had radiotherapy, despite international guidelines that recommend it be given from four weeks after surgery.