More than any other clinical priority, the government has staked its credibility on tackling cancer, one of Britain's biggest killers and - in terms of its lamentable record in treating the disease - one of the health service's most shameful failures.
The national cancer plan, launched with great fanfare by health secretary Alan Milburn at the Labour Party conference, puts in place a strategy that promises to bring the UK's record on the disease into line with the rest of western Europe.
The plan will serve as a barometer, measuring the state of the NHS. As it states: "The ability of the NHS to modernise and reform its cancer services is a litmus test for the health of the NHS as a whole."
At the heart of the plan is a series of, on the face of it, ambitious targets related to waiting times, together with an aspirational "ultimate goal" of a maximum one-month wait between urgent referral for suspected cancer and the start of treatment. According to Mr Milburn: "The plan will develop cancer services in this country that compare with the best in Europe. By 2010, our five-year survival rates for cancer will compare with the best in Europe."
Such promises are a hostage to fortune, even though many of the performance targets set by the government will not have to be met until 2005 - towards the end of a second electoral term. It will not be an easy ride. The plan is being launched against a backdrop of years of underinvestment in staff and equipment that has created comparatively poor cancer survival rates, particularly for the worse off, and wide geographical variations in access to and quality of treatment. And while the waiting time targets represent an improvement on current NHS performance, specialists say even if they are met they will not put the NHS on a par with other European countries.
"The targets are reasonable given the state of the NHS, but soft compared to Holland and France. In France you would expect a consultant appointment in a couple of days not a couple of weeks," says Gordon McVie, director general of Cancer Research campaign.
The success of the plan is tied inextricably to the far-from-guaranteed success of the government's NHS reforms. In particular, it depends on plans to hire thousands more nurses, doctors and scientists. Ministers aim to recruit 1,000 extra cancer specialists, as well as more radiographers and nurses, by 2006.
But Professor McVie warns more needs to be done sooner. "We have asked for 600 oncologists (specialist cancer doctors) in three years; they have promised 1,000 in six years. We should be going abroad now to get these extra doctors."
