'More people are now being diagnosed with cancer'
As more people are diagnosed with cancer and more treatments are available to patients, The Christie has delivered a record number of chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments in one 12-month period for the first time in its 125-year history.
More than 14,000 patients under the care of Manchester's specialist cancer centre received 105,827 chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2025.
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This is a threefold increase in the number of treatments provided compared with 15 years ago. In 2010-2011, the cancer centre performed approximately 35,000 chemotherapy treatments.
Chemotherapy, immunotherapy and hormonal treatments for cancer are delivered at The Christie in Withington and by Christie nurses across Greater Manchester, Cheshire and Derbyshire through a network of 11 local treatment centres and directly in patients' homes.
These include The Royal Bolton Hospital, Bury Hospice and St Anne's Hospice in Little Hulton.
Around 9,000 chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments also take place in patients' homes through the 'at home' service.
Gemma Jones, Lead nurse for Systematic Anti-Cancer Therapy and Outpatients, said: "Over the past year, we have delivered a record number of chemotherapy and immunotherapy treatments to patients at The Christie, and our dedicated staff are working harder than ever to keep up with demand.
'My team have worked extremely hard on service efficiencies to ensure we are managing the increase in new treatments and alternative treatment options which have seen us deliver more than 105,000 treatments in one year to patients. Despite these record numbers, our colleagues still aim to provide the highest standards of compassion and care for the people they treat.'
There are numerous reasons for the increase in the number of treatments being delivered.
More people than ever before are now being diagnosed with cancer, with the lifetime risk of a cancer diagnosis for anyone born after 1960 being one in two. Improvements in early diagnosis mean that more patients than ever before are being diagnosed when cancer is in its early stages and treatments are most likely to be successful. More treatments for late-stage cancers are also available than 15 years ago.
The increase in treatments delivered is also a result of anti-cancer therapies being more successful. Around half of people diagnosed with cancer in England and Wales now survive with their disease for ten years or more and live on average, almost six times longer after their cancer diagnosis than was the case 40 years ago.
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