Ministers warned cancer survival rates could fall due to NHS staff and pay crises

Exclusive: Head of Cancer Research UK says waiting lists for care could get even longer unless health service's problems are fixed

Ministers risk cutting the survival chances of cancer patients and undoing two decades of progress in lowering death rates unless they tackle the NHS workforce crisis and resolve the pay row, the head of Britain's biggest cancer charity has warned.

Although efforts have been made to prioritise cancer patients, Michelle Mitchell, the chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said the impact of next week's planned strikes by nurses and ambulance workers would be cumulative and the NHS would find it harder and harder" to prevent cancer patients dying early.