BOPA welcomes the National Cancer Plan and highlights the essential role of cancer pharmacy professionals in delivering world‑class cancer care

BOPA welcomes the National Cancer Plan and highlights the essential role of cancer pharmacy professionals in delivering world‑class cancer care – The National Cancer Plan for England: delivering world class cancer care

The British Oncology Pharmacy Association (BOPA) welcomes today’s publication of the National Cancer Plan for England, launched on World Cancer Day. The plan sets out a bold vision to transform cancer outcomes through earlier diagnosis, modernised treatment pathways, and expanded use of cutting‑edge technologies, with a commitment that three in four people diagnosed from 2035 will be cancer‑free or living well after five years.

The plan explicitly recognises the role of pharmacy and highlights BOPA as a key contributing organisation whose expertise shaped its development, reaffirming the central importance of the cancer pharmacy workforce in achieving national ambitions.

BOPA strongly supports this ambition and emphasises that its success will rely on the leadership, expertise and professionalism of cancer pharmacy professionals, who are essential to delivering safe, effective and personalised cancer care across the UK.

Cancer pharmacy professionals driving safer, more personalised cancer care

Modern diagnostic and treatment innovations – including robot‑assisted surgery, AI‑enhanced lung cancer identification and strengthened diagnostic capacity – will require expert medicines governance and treatment oversight from cancer pharmacy professionals. These developments align with national predictions of increasing personalisation and data‑driven treatment pathways.

BOPA continues to lead nationally on the expansion of pharmacist independent prescribing within cancer care, supporting standardised prescribing competencies and the growth of credentialled pharmacist roles. This reflects BOPA’s long‑standing call for integrated training pathways, digital competency passports and robust national workforce planning to strengthen oncology capacity.

The BOPA submission to the Cancer Plan further highlights the essential contribution of pharmacy professionals in expanding treatment capacity, supporting genomic‑guided care, reducing unwarranted variation and delivering high‑quality systemic anticancer therapy (SACT) services. BOPA Submission for the National Cancer Plan for England 2025 – Call for Evidence – BOPA

Supporting earlier diagnosis and equitable access

The National Cancer Plan places major emphasis on earlier diagnosis – a priority strongly championed by BOPA. The plan specifically references BOPA’s flagship Let’s Communicate Cancer e‑learning programme (grant funding provided in collaboration with our corporate member Pfizer), recognising it as a vital national resource supporting pharmacy teams to identify red‑flag symptoms, respond effectively to patient concerns and promote screening uptake.

BOPA’s Community and Primary Care Pharmacy subcommittee (CPCP) Subcommittee is also advancing earlier cancer detection by educating and upskilling primary care colleagues and undertaking NICE reviews to help with earlier diagnosis (i.e. sponge on a string test). This cross‑sector training strengthens symptom recognition, improves referral quality and enhances early detection, complementing national pilots in community pharmacy.

These initiatives position cancer pharmacy professionals at the forefront of reducing inequalities, promoting timely diagnosis and improving access to high‑quality cancer care.

National leadership in standardisation: UK SACT Board and SACT protocol development

BOPA welcomes the alignment between the plan’s ambitions and the national work of the UK SACT Board (a collaborative national body established to provide guidance, oversight, and strategic direction for the safe delivery and development of Systemic Anti-Cancer Therapy (SACT) services across the UK).

Recent publications – including standardised SACT review guidance and guidance on SACT protocol content – underpin the National SACT Protocol Pilot, which aims to establish a unified UK protocol library that reduces variation and enhances safety. This directly supports BOPA’s call for a fully funded National SACT Protocol Programme, as outlined in its submission.

Putting people at the centre of cancer care

Aligned with the 2026 World Cancer Day theme United by Unique, the National Cancer Plan reinforces the need for highly personalised, compassionate cancer care.

This includes Action 24, committing to “new training opportunities to help staff provide care that is sensitive to the needs of older people or people who are LGBT+ or from ethnic minority communities.”

BOPA strongly supports this action. As a consistent collaborator in the impact economy, BOPA has demonstrated national leadership in equality‑focused cancer care. Its TRANScribing resource – developed in partnership with the charity OUTpatients UK – provides practical, evidence‑based guidance to support safe, inclusive and identity‑sensitive prescribing for LGBTIQ+ people affected by cancer. This work exemplifies BOPA’s commitment to ensuring culturally competent, equitable care across all cancer pharmacy services.

Cancer pharmacy professionals are uniquely positioned to deliver medicines optimisation, toxicity management, tailored education, survivorship support and holistic patient care – often seeing patients more frequently than any other cancer professional group. Through programmes such as Let’s Communicate Cancer, the profession continues to strengthen its capacity to deliver sensitive, compassionate and inclusive care across diverse communities.

A call for pharmacy inclusion in workforce planning and implementation

To deliver the ambition of the National Cancer Plan, BOPA urges the government and NHS England to:

– Fully integrate cancer pharmacy professionals into national workforce planning, recognising their vital role in systemic anticancer therapy, diagnosis, personalised medicine, genomics and advancing pharmacy practice.

– Support national standardisation across SACT protocols, prescribing competencies and capacity planning tools.

– Invest in pharmacy education, genomic literacy, pharmacy research and credentialling practice frameworks to ensure the workforce is equipped for increasingly complex care

 

BOPA Statement

“Cancer pharmacy professionals are fundamental to delivering the ambitions of the new National Cancer Plan. From systemic therapy governance and personalised treatment to national standardisation initiatives, pharmacist independent prescribing, early diagnosis through primary care collaboration, and training initiatives such as Let’s Communicate Cancer, pharmacy teams play an indispensable role in ensuring every patient receives safe, effective and equitable cancer care. BOPA is proud to be recognised within the plan and looks forward to continued collaboration with national partners, including the UK SACT Board, to transform cancer services for people across the UK.”