Cancer care may become so expensive that only the rich will be able to afford the latest and best treatment, a leading expert has warned.

Karol Sikora, professor of oncology at the Hammersmith Hospital in London said that treatments are advancing at such a rate that the NHS would soon be unable to afford treatment for thousands of its patients.

Sikora, a former head of the WHO cancer programme said: "Patients can expect to see great advancements in cancer treatments. The result will be greater inequity. The rich will be able to pay for things and the poor won't."