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Every year 200,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in England. And every year 120,000 people lose their lives to the disease. Cancer is one of the biggest killers in this country, and we have made it one of the central priorities for the NHS.

This Cancer Plan sets out the first ever comprehensive strategy to tackle the disease. It is the first time any government has drawn up a major programme of action linking prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and research.

There is much in our cancer services of which we can rightly be proud. Research and treatment of children's cancers are among the best in the world. Thanks to the hospice movement and charities we have a strong tradition of palliative care.

And the NHS breast cancer screening programme is the most comprehensive of any comparable country. The commitment of those working to fight cancer in the NHS, the voluntary sector, the community and families across the country is immense. But in too many areas the reality of our cancer services fails to match the level of that commitment. Despite the best efforts of the NHS staff and cancer patients across the country, decades of under-investment alongside outdated practices mean that survival rates for many of the major cancers lag behind the rest of Europe.

The poor are still far more likely to get cancer than the rich, and their chances of survival are lower too. Furthermore there are too many variations in the quality of care and treatment across the country, leaving cancer patients frustrated by a postcode lottery.

This Cancer Plan sets out a programme of investment and reform to tackle these problems and deliver the fastest improving cancer services in Europe. It takes forward the work in the NHS Plan - increasing the number of doctors, nurses and other staff and providing more equipment for cancer care, but also modernising the NHS too, through new national standards and new ways of working to prevent and treat cancer. It sets out our approach to tackling health inequalities and perhaps most important of all, it puts the patient at the centre of cancer care.

Like the NHS Plan, this Cancer Plan has been drawn up through extensive consultation with professionals and patients across the country, led by the National Cancer Director, Professor Mike Richards. We have ambitious aims, to raise the level of our cancer services to the best in Europe and to save lives.

This Cancer Plan shows how we will deliver on those aims.