Patient non-attendance at urgent referral appointments for suspected cancer and its links to cancer diagnosis and one year mortality: A cohort study of patients referred on the Two Week Wait pathway

•The Two Week Wait (2WW) policy aims to shorten time to cancer diagnosis and treatment by ensuring that patients are seen by a specialist within two weeks of urgent referral.•Several NHS Trusts have identified that some patients do not attend their 2WW appointments, but there is no existing research which assesses this.•This study found evidence that more than 5% patients do not attend their urgent referral appointments.•Age, gender, deprivation, referral year, distance to the hospital and suspected cancer site were all associated with non-attendance.•Whilst cancer diagnosis was less likely in those who did not attend their 2WW referral, such patients had worse early cancer mortality outcomes.