HSJ Cancer Forum 2026

North East London Cancer Alliance joined interesting innovations and thought-provoking panel discussions at this year's HSJ Cancer Forum, which took place at the Park Plaza London Riverbank Hotel.

There was much anticipation for the day following the launch of the NHS National Cancer Plan last month.

North East London Cancer Alliance attended the forum to learn best practice from across the country, catch up with colleagues from Trusts and alliances, and network with a wide range of industry partners.

It was great to see Adam Januszewski, Consultant Medical Oncologist and Quality and Safety Lead, Barts Cancer Centre, talk so eloquently about such an important a topic as the inequalities in cancer care for patients with mental health challenges. The session - called Advancing Early Cancer Diagnosis for Patients with Mental Health Challenges - inspired lots of ideas to make a difference in this area, with some powerful, yet shocking, statistics about the gap in inequalities.

Sas Banerjee, Consultant Colorectal Surgeon from Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, brilliantly led a lively interactive discussion on The Economics of Early Diagnosis: From Evidence to Action, sharing best practice from his successful work in north east London and encouraging others to think about the powerful financial impact from early diagnosis.

Sarita Yaganti, Personalised Cancer Care Programme Lead for North East London Cancer Alliance, stepped in to lead an important interactive discussion on 'Embedding patient voice and survivorship – supportive care and neighbourhood rehabilitation', something which is critical to improving the patient experience, and a key priority.

The event was a timely reminder that, whilst there is a lot of excitement around the national cancer plan and improvements in cancer care, there is a lot of hard work ahead to make significant steps forward in quality of life across the diverse communities in north east London.

North East London Cancer Alliance has already put in place three core strategies to help achieve this – the Health Inequalities, Workforce and Artificial Intelligence strategies – which will be launched next month.

For more information

To view the full agenda from the day, visit: https://cancerforum.hsj.co.uk/agenda