With Chris Lewis, Simon Allen, Philip Booth, Heather George, Fiona Sivyer, Sara Spinks and Sarah Steele.

The Yes to Life Charter for Oncology is a key initiative to reform our outdated cancer services.

Our NHS cancer services seem to have become arrested some time in the last century when it comes to respecting people as autonomous individuals who are free to make the choices they feel are best for their own healthcare, and who need solutions that meet their particular needs rather than the needs of the system. This is no small issue as it is seriously impeding the progress of cancer care and causing immense levels of unnecessary suffering. For a quarter of a century, the NHS has had patient-centred care as one of its guiding principles, but in oncology at least, evidence of this is very hard to find, demonstrating the extraordinary resistance to change that is endemic in our healthcare systems. Yes to Life has launched its Charter for Oncology as a means to begin to highlight the outdated and damaging culture surviving in oncology.

• The Yes to Life Charter for Oncology