Thousands of people who go on to be diagnosed with cancer are not being referred to specialists quickly enough by GPs, NHS England figures suggest.
Under NHS targets, 95% of people with suspected cancer should be seen by a specialist within two weeks.
But the data indicates that this target was missed in more than half of the 4,000 GP surgeries sampled.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said the government was tackling the "unacceptable variation".
NHS England said the figures were not a clear measure of performance, as some patients did not have obvious symptoms.
National performance data allows patients to look up their GP surgery and see how it performs against dozens of diagnosis and treatment indicators.
NHS England collected the figures on cancer referral rates from GP surgeries across the country as part of a drive to make the health service more transparent.
'Transparency applauded'Early diagnosis is seen as the most important factor in tackling cancer.
In 59% of the GP practices sampled, fewer than half the patients subsequently found to have the disease had been referred to a specialist within the two-week target.
In one in six surgeries, doctors are said to have failed to make an urgent referral in at least two thirds of these cases.
And in some practices, only one in 10 patients later found to have cancer had been referred within the target time.
Stuart Barber, from Beating Bowel Cancer, said it was "intolerable" that patients were having to wait.
He said: "GPs have the tools. There are clear symptoms, there is a clear screening programme and if a patient visits their doctor with what are symptoms of bowel cancer they should have the confidence they are going to be referred quickly."
'Red flag signals'But Sean Duffy from NHS England told the BBC the figures could not be used as a simple measure of GP performance because not all cancer patients would have visited their doctors with clear symptoms.
And Dr Mike Bewick, deputy medical director at NHS England, told the Daily Telegraph some signs of cancer, including tiredness, or weight loss, were more difficult for GPs to interpret than more obvious "red flag" signals such as passing blood or a persistent cough.
But he added that some of the poor results on cancer referrals were "not acceptable".
"I hope this transparency will be applauded and used as a tool to ensure better outcomes," he said, calling on GPs with very low rates of urgent referral for cancer to look closely at their performance.
Jeremy Hunt said: "Every single patient in the NHS has the right to the very best care - and to see a GP who can spot cancer symptoms early enough to make a difference.
"That's why we've introduced a rigorous new inspection regime for GP surgeries."
Under the regime, a new chief inspector will rate each surgery so the government can take action against those "not up to scratch", he said.
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