Cancer treatment is like a postcode lottery - how fast you get treated depends on where you live.

Ministry of Health figures show increasing numbers of people are being diagnosed with cancer - but most of our DHBs aren't meeting the targets for getting patients seen to.

16 of our 20 district health boards are failing to meet the target of first treatment within 62 days of being referred to a specialist.

READ MORE: DHBs falling behind in cancer treatment times

Cancer Society medical director Dr Chris Jackson told Mike Hosking resources are available, but they're not being used efficiently around the country.

"I think if you look at the figures you'll see that the demand and the amount of time people are waiting differs depending on where you live."

A lack of trained staff is also being blamed on the increasing wait-time for cancer patients to get their first bout of treatment.

Jackson said when someone's waiting for their first treatment, every day is agony and staffing shortages are partly to blame for the delays.

"We do need more doctors and nurses and we are being asked to more and more all the time.

"I think one of the problems is we're getting more treatments available, Pharmac gives us more drugs, but we don't get more staff to go along with that."

LISTEN ABOVE AS DR CHRIS JACKSON SPEAKS WITH MIKE HOSKING