In January, a quarter of cancer patients waited more than two months before starting treatment, a worrying increase which means that standard treatment has been forgotten for more than 1,000 days, experts said.
The official NHS figures for January and February show that performance against the main waiting times has continued to plunge into new depths despite a milder winter than last year.
The statistics come just days after NHS England announced its intention to abandon several targets after years of deterioration, despite fears of patients waiting even longer.
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The commitment to treat 85% of cancer patients within 62 days of referral is one of the few to be preserved, but has not been nationally delivered since December 2015 .
The January figures show the worst performance to date, with only 76.2% of them respected, against 81% in December.
"The hidden numbers hide real people who tell us how delays are a source of worry for them and their loved ones at a time when they are already trying to cope with the many worries about cancer," said Dr. Fran Woodward of Macmillan Cancer Support. .
More than 127,000 people have been waiting for cancer treatment for too long since the target was missed for the first time five years ago, she added.
This highlights the need for new cancer pledges and other wait times with funding and staff.
With more people than ever before in hospitals, the four-hour target in education support services and the 18-week waiting standard for operations have also seen performance deteriorate.
In February, only 84.2% of patients had been treated, admitted or sent home four hours after their arrival at the emergency – the lowest level since setting the goal in 2004.
More than 552,000 people waited more than 18 weeks in February for hip surgery or other operations, an increase of 100,000 over the previous year, and a wait of nine months or more has increased by almost 40%.
New objectives proposing to introduce an "average waiting time" for both measures and a standard of one hour for urgent situations in the field of efficiency and effectiveness. Expertise will be tested this year before the existing benchmarks are abandoned.
"Today's statistics will do little to dispel concerns on the front line that targets will not be changed on the basis of clinical consensus, but because of the political pressure of Conservative ministers" said Labor Secretary of Health Jonathan Ashworth.
He added that it was "shameful" that the cancer performance figures were the worst ever recorded.
Professor John Appleby, chief economist of the Nuffield Trust think-tank, said the latest cancer expectations showed a "brutal and worrisome" deterioration and that the so-called "pending waiting" for patients left for hours then that they needed a hospital bed were also rising.
The think tank supports pilots new standards of waiting time, but Professor Appleby said the NHS was in "rushing waters".
"It will be difficult for managers to implement them and for the public to trust that it is not just a matter of lowering the bar while the queues are going down. waiting continue to come out of the A & E door, "he added.
An NHS England spokesman said: "More people than ever before are coming forward for cancer screening tests, with a quarter of a million more people under cancer control this year and thousands more treated in this year. two months.
They added that the hard-working staff had allowed a quarter of a million more people to be seen in less than four hours at A & E, and had reduced ambulance delays and the number of people unnecessarily stranded. l & # 39; hospital.
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