Yorkshire Cancer Centre - Our Vision
bigger and Better
The new Bexley Wing at St James’s Institute of Oncology has centralised and expanded many of the services of the Yorkshire Cancer Centre and provides treatment and care for a catchment population of 2.6 million people from West, North, East Yorkshire and beyond.
A new level of service to revolutionise cancer care
“One in four people in England will die of cancer. More than one in three people will develop cancer at some stage in their lives. Over 200,000 people are diagnosed each year with the disease - 600 new cases every day. Whichever way we present the statistics, it is not surprising that cancer is perhaps the disease that people fear the most.”
NHS National Cancer Plan
Despite these statistics we have so much to be hopeful about as great advances are achieved in UK cancer services. In 1970, about half of those diagnosed with breast cancer survived five years; today it is 80%. But we need to go further to get even better results.
The National Cancer Plan set out a vision for better prevention, detection and treatment of cancer through the creation of a network of cancer centres and cancer units in each region. The Yorkshire Cancer Network was established in 1996 and Leeds was established as a Cancer Centre. However, it could not play its full role in implementing the vision of the NHS Cancer Plan unless a range of services were centralised and expanded within the context of a major acute hospital site. What was needed was not just a high specification building but also a concentration of high tech equipment alongside a pooling of med ical resources and specialist staff who can work collaboratively to optimise the benefits of research and development into cancer services.
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has been committed to this vision of excellence for many years: part of realising this vision is the provision of this state-of-the-art 21st century facility to ensure more people survive cancer.
