Members of the public will be able to see how well their local hospitals and clinics treat cancer, based on the rates of survival. The statistics could be published as early as next year.

According to Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director for England, a “postcode lottery” still exists for patients with cancer.

He said that cancer patients should be able to access data on local survival rates in the same way that patients with heart disease can compare the record of cardiac surgeons in different hospitals.

Published survival rates would highlight which trusts might be doing particularly badly in cancer care and enable the public to choose where to receive treatment.

Professor Richard said that the data would have to be adjusted to take account of the higher death rates at dedicated cancer units, which often deal with the most complex or advanced cases. The statistics would have to note the severity of each case, including the form of cancer and the stage to which the disease had progressed, which would affect the patient’s chances of survival.Professor Richards said that the publication of survival rates for each hospital was a “key priority” for the cancer reform strategy, to be outlined by Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary, in London today.

The plan is designed to supplement the ten-year cancer plan that was introduced six years ago.

Ms Hewitt will tell the Britain Against Cancer conference that according to the latest quarterly figures the National Health Service has met a key target of the original cancer strategy in England. It states that more than 95 per cent of cancer patients should not wait longer than two months for treatment from the date of an urgent GP referral.

Ms Hewitt is understood to welcome the figures, but Professor Richards said that the new strategy would improve the efficiency of cancer treatment.

About 220,000 people are found to have cancer each year in England, and the disease causes more than 128,000 deaths.

The number of new cases of cancer is increasing by around 1.4 per cent a year in Britain as the elderly population grows. By 2020, the number of cases is expected to have increased by a third since 2001, Professor Richards said.

Joanne Rule, chief executive of Cancerbackup, said: “We know that there are vastly varying amounts spent on cancer care across the country and it is right that information should now be made available about outcomes too.”

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