Lung Cancer: Screening

Baroness Merron Excerpts

Monday 26th June 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the National Screening Committee for its work and welcome this Statement, which outlines the only response that makes any sense: the establishment of a national targeted lung cancer screening programme. I also pay tribute to the many individuals and organisations that have worked over many years for this, in particular the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, which, in addition to campaigning, has been delivering its own scans since 2016.

I very much wish to associate these Benches with the thoughts of the late and much-missed MP for Old Bexley and Sidcup, James Brokenshire. I acknowledge the work he did in bringing this cancer screening programme about, which was continued by his wife Cathy. This is a very fitting Statement with which to honour his memory.

There is no doubt that diagnosing more people earlier is absolutely crucial. This programme will certainly improve that, but it does have to go hand in hand with treatment that is available rather quicker than is currently the case. The UK currently lags behind the European average for five-year survival rates for lung cancer. More broadly, since 2010, ever more cancer patients have waited longer than is safe to see a specialist. The target of 85% of patients to start treatment from initial GP referral within 62 days has not been met since 2015.

Can the Minister tell your Lordships’ House whether this extension of screening will be matched by the necessary improvements in access to treatment? If the treatment programme is to be improved—as surely it must be—how will this be done, and when? Will it be new money or a diversion from existing resources that funds the programme and any associated improvements in treatment?

Turning to the areas where lung disease is most prevalent, notably those with the greatest deprivation and health inequality, can the Minister give an assurance that resources for the screening programme will continue to be targeted at the areas that need it most? With existing health structures already worse in these areas, how will they be improved to support the delivery of the lung cancer screening programme?

Despite the Government’s support today, it has taken nearly nine months to act on the recommendation of the National Screening Committee, and there is now a timeline to reach 40% of the eligible population by March 2025, with full coverage by March 2030. Can the Minister say whether work is going on to hasten the timeline of this rollout?

The Health and Social Care Select Committee’s report last year into cancer services concluded that a lack of serious effort on cancer workforce shortages risks a reversal in cancer survival rates. While we have been promised the NHS workforce plan this week, after many years of waiting, I note that the Government’s press release had just one line on the workforce necessary to make the screening programme a reality, saying that additional radiographers are due to be appointed. Can the Minister assure the House that when we do get the workforce plan, it will address the major shortages that were outlined by the British Thoracic Society, whose report identifies workforce shortages as the main challenge in the provision of healthcare to those with lung conditions?

As the Minister rightly pointed out in the Statement, smoking is indeed the leading cause of cancer, causing 150 cancer cases every day and one person’s death every five minutes due to smoking-related ill health. It is therefore important that alongside diagnosis, we work to stop people smoking in the first place and support those who do smoke to quit. Yet the number of people quitting has slumped since 2010 and smoking cessation services have been cut. Can the Minister confirm when we will get the awaited Government response to the review of tobacco control policies, led by Dr Javed Khan?

It is not only smokers who have lung cancer and other lung conditions. The context in which all of this takes place is a range of other factors in addition to smoke and smoking, and that includes air quality. It would be helpful if the Minister indicated what is being done to tackle these broader challenges. Furthermore, it is not the diagnosis of lung cancer only that will improve through the screening programme, but also that of conditions such as cystic fibrosis. What expectation does the Minister have in this regard?

My Lords, I am sure we all want to see this national, targeted lung cancer screening programme save lives, and I hope the Minister can give the reassurances I seek today.

[Lord Allan of Hallam (LD)]

My Lords, I would like to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, in welcoming the Government’s acceptance of the National Screening Committee’s recommendation to introduce a targeted lung cancer screening programme, and echo her tribute to the late James Brokenshire, whom I dealt with in a previous capacity when he was a Minister advocating for child safety online. I found him to be very effective; a firm Minister who was also very pleasant to deal with—the most effective model for all of us.

The new programme is especially welcome as a step towards addressing the glaring health inequalities we face in the United Kingdom. I hope the Minister will reassure us that sufficient data will be collected in order to understand whether it is having the kind of impact the Government intend, as he outlined in the Statement.

I hope the Minister can also provide more information about how it can be delivered, given that we already have dire shortages in capacity to deliver diagnostic tests. This shortfall is reflected in today’s report from the King’s Fund, which shows a serious gap in CT and MRI scanner capacity between the UK and comparable countries. When can we expect to see investment from the Government in additional scanners, to bring us up to something more like the international mean? As well as the lack of machines, we do not have sufficient people to operate them or to assess the test results. I invite the Minister to refresh his formula for when we may see the long-awaited NHS workforce plan, including the element that relates to radiologists, perhaps updating it from “shortly” to “in the next week”, as it surely has to come before the 75th<sup>anniversary of the NHS on 5 July.

The concern we continually have with announcements of new services by the NHS in the current context is that they will come at the expense of existing services; the noble Baroness, Lady Merron, also referred to this. I believe this is a rational and reasonable concern to have, given the evidence of missed targets and unacceptable wait times that is all around us. I hope the Minister can give us further assurances that, as the Government will the end of catching more cancers earlier, they will also be willing to will the means to deliver on this promise.

Anyone with eyes in their head can see that vaping is being cynically promoted to young teenagers; it is all around us in high street shops and in the evidence from the litter around schools. The Statement refers to the role of vaping as a tool to help existing smokers give up their harmful habit, but there is increasing evidence that vaping is creating new nicotine addicts, with associated risks. The Australian Government have found that young people who vape are three times as likely to take up smoking, and they have plans to bring in a range of measures to suppress vaping among young non-smokers. Can the Minister explain what assessment the UK Government have made of the Australian evidence of vaping leading to higher smoking prevalence among young people, and are the UK Government considering similar measures to reduce vaping use here? It took us five years to follow Australia in introducing plain packaging for cigarettes. I hope we can follow faster here, on vaping.

The new screening programme is welcome, but it must be properly resourced with both machines and people. I hope the Minister can give us some insights into how that will happen, and at the same time explain what action the Government intend to take to reduce vaping among non-smokers, so that we do not end up creating a new wave of people who are at risk of lung cancer.</sup>

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[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord, Lord Kennedy, and I am sorry for the loss of his brother. I agree with his sentiment that while this is good news today and is welcomed by all, it shows that this is a journey and that we need to do more in lots more areas. I take on that point and say, from our point of view, that we agree that we must work together to make further progress.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

Could I give the Minister another opportunity to pick up on the key point I raised? We very much welcome the improved diagnosis rates—and my noble friend Lord Kennedy makes a very pertinent point that, of course, we are talking not just about one cancer. I thank him for sharing his views and feelings with your Lordships’ House. That takes me to my reminder to the Minister: I asked about matching improvements in diagnosis with improved access to treatment; otherwise, we are leaving people diagnosed but not matching it by giving them the treatment they need in a timely manner. Could the Minister assist with that point?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am sorry; I was answering in a generic format in terms of the new CDCs. The noble Baroness is quite right that diagnosis is one thing—and we all know that the early stages are key—but you then have to follow that up with treatment. Of course, the good news is that if you can detect cancer in people at the earlier stages, they need less treatment. The resources I mentioned, in terms of what is being spent on the programme, take into account the treatment required as well.

Of the people being identified at this stage, only 1.4% from the pilot were then positive and needed treatment, thankfully. Obviously, those resources are in place. There is a second interesting category of people—about 17% or so—who are fine but we want to make sure that what has been noticed is in an okay state.

I am going to grab my notes to make sure I am referring exactly to the right term at this stage. I apologise; about 1.7% have nodules, which is not a problem per se, but it is a problem if those are growing. The idea is that we will be getting those people back in for frequent scans on a three- to six-monthly basis and using AI technology to see whether or not the nodules are growing. If they are not growing, it is not a problem, but we then keep up the frequency of scans. Obviously, if they are growing, that would be a concern at the early stages, and that would then move them into the treatment category.

The other 80% or so of people fortunately will not have any concerns from the scan at all. At that stage, they will be put into this continual programme, where they will be reviewed every couple of years to make sure that we keep on top of it. I hope that this shows that this is a well thought-out, entwined service, with the idea being that for the 1.4% who are identified as needing cancer treatment, the treatment is there to back them up.