RCR President Dr. Jeanette Dickson noted that there's a shortfall of nearly 2,000 radiologists and nearly 200 clinical oncologists in the U.K.

"If we want to diagnose patients earlier, giving them the best chance of successful treatment, we have to do more scans at an earlier stage -- but we don't have capacity for that," Dickson said in a statement. "Long-term investment in both workforce and kit are critical to keeping survival rates high, delivering the healthcare our patients need."