Dr Graeme Poston speaks to ecancer.tv about the challenges faced when trying to maintain a constantly high standard of surgery across the UK. Although progress has been made ensuring that surgeons are properly trained and working in well equipped specialised units there are still too much variation in the level of treatment offered in hospitals across the UK. Dr Poston discusses progress that has been made in the treatment of colorectal and liver cancer patients in the UK, where an increase in the degree of treatment centralisation, the development of new drugs and targeted therapies has significantly improved treatment success rates.