Wes Streeting said he wants a Labour government to be judged on whether it improves cancer survival rates.
The Shadow Health Secretary added he was lucky he survived his own scare after kidney cancer was picked up by chance, aged 38.
His diagnosis two years ago led to a kidney removal but left him with a desire to improve the life chances of those less fortunate.
Writing for the Mirror, he said: “At one point in our lives we have all felt that shiver run down our spine when a loved one receives a cancer diagnosis.
“I was lucky. I went to hospital for a kidney stone and the doctor discovered cancer on my kidney while doing a routine scan.
“Too many people aren’t so fortunate – they don’t get tested in time and their cancer is diagnosed too late. Delay costs lives.”
It comes after he and Labour leader Keir Starmer met the heads of Cancer Research UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and drug firm AstraZeneca at North London’s Francis Crick Institute.
Labour is highlighting OECD data that shows cancer patients are more likely to die in the UK than in any other G7 country.
Last week NHS England figures showed the Tories had broken their vow to get cancer care waits down to pre-pandemic levels. PM Rishi Sunak had promised to cut the number of people waiting more than 62 days by March.
Some 19,248 were waiting this long for the week ending April 2 compared to an average weekly figure of 13,463 in February 2020.
Mr Streeting said: “After the first term of a Labour government, people should judge us by whether we have improved cancer survival rates.”
The Department of Health said: “The NHS has treated record numbers of cancer patients over the last two years and in March nearly 92% started treatment within one month. Cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage more often.
“We’re working to further reduce the 62-day cancer backlog, which has fallen 43% since peaking during the pandemic.”
Disease likelier to be fatal in UK, writes WES STREETING
Cancer care is in crisis. Last week, the Conservatives missed their target to start patients’ treatment within two months.
This follows 13 years of Tory government in which cancer waits have worsened in every year.
As a result, cancer is more likely to be fatal for Brits than patients in all other comparable countries.
Labour has committed to bringing waiting times down by giving our NHS the staff it needs.
We will abolish the non-dom tax status to train 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 extra nurses a year.
Cancer patients need nurses, not non-doms. But to save lives, we also have to get catch it earlier. That was the message from expert researchers, carers, and survivors at a meeting Keir Starmer held at the Francis Crick Institute last week.
Keir and I heard about the exciting new advances in early intervention.
We were told about a new blood test that has the potential to detect 50 kinds of cancer. Another test, a capsule on a string which is swallowed and then pulled back out through the throat, can help spot at-risk patients before cancer has even developed.
The Government should be putting rocket boosters under new innovations like these, but it seems more interested in red tape.
We have so many advantages in our country.
The NHS and our amazing research institutions mean patients ought to be receiving world-class care.
We just need a government with the ambition to make those advantages count.
Cancer is the canary in the coal mine, the sign that things are going wrong in the NHS.
It can also be the tide that lifts all boats. If we get cancer care right, we will have improved the health service for everyone.
After the first term of a Labour government, people should judge us by whether we have improved cancer services and improved survival rates.
