Cancer Outcomes in the UK

Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe Excerpts

Tuesday 21st April 2026 Grand Committee

[Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Patel, for securing the debate and pay tribute to his indefatigable commitment to improving health outcomes and championing research and to his powerful and moving speech. I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to the debate. I know that I will not be the only speaker whose family has been touched by cancer. Seeing much-loved family members or friends suffer is the reason we can all agree that patients deserve timely diagnosis and the best possible treatment. In the past, I have spoken about pancreatic cancer and brain cancer from my own family perspective. I will focus my remarks on these and other cancers, including cancers of the liver, lungs, oesophagus and stomach, which are grouped, rather grimly, as the least-survivable cancers.

I warmly welcome the recently published national cancer plan, which has brought these rarer cancers into focus. For the first time, we have a national plan that makes specific commitments to less common cancers and I commend the Government for that. The plan aims to have three out of four people diagnosed with cancer survive five or more years by 2035, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, pointed out. It recognises that progress for people affected by less survivable cancers is key to this aim. As the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce notes,

“these cancers account for a disproportionate number of cancer deaths and require focused action if overall survival targets are to be met”.

Earlier detection and faster diagnosis for all forms of cancer are critical to improving people’s access to treatment and, ultimately, their chance of survival, but progress on the rarer cancers still lags behind progress on others. Survival rates for these cancers have remained largely static over the last 25 years, partly because their often vague and non-specific symptoms can make early diagnosis very difficult. Just 28% of less survivable cancers are diagnosed at stages 1 or 2, compared to 54% of all cancers. A large proportion of people with less survivable cancers are diagnosed in A&E, so the national cancer plan’s strong focus on early diagnosis is welcome.

It is an excellent and ambitious plan informed by cancer professionals, patients and their families but, as ever, it will take funding to secure real improvement and change. Like others, I am aware that this plan is launched at a time when there seem to be substantial economic growth problems and demand on public spending is being stretched in all directions. We need to be realistic about what can be done here and now. Our efforts must be focused on what will have the greatest impact. I was therefore very pleased to read last week that we are making progress in our efforts to cut set-up times for clinical trials. Approval processes in the UK have been slow and bureaucratic, so faster access to new treatments and medicines can be only a good thing. Will the Minister say more about how we can now encourage people to access clinical trials and tackle historically low patient recruitment?

We need to prioritise research, particularly into the less survivable cancers. We know that rare cancers account for some 47% of UK cancer diagnoses and some 55% of cancer deaths, yet they receive a fraction of research funding and clinical trial work. The Rare Cancers Act, passed last month, is a huge step towards addressing this imbalance, and I pay tribute to Scott Arthur MP, who saw it through its passage in the House of Commons, and my noble friend Lady Elliott of Whitburn Bay, who steered it through its final stages in this House. It will drive research innovation to improve treatments and survival for rare cancers, including brain tumours and pancreatic cancer. Can the Minister give us any encouragement on moves to appoint a national clinical lead for rare cancers, as called for in the Act and in the National Cancer Plan for England? I am very conscious of the substantial funds made available only eight years ago, following the death of our noble friend Lady Jowell. A very small proportion of that money has yet been spent, and that was eight years ago.

In finishing, I want to highlight some encouraging developments in diagnosing a cancer that currently has a UK survival rate of just over 8% and that has affected my family particularly. Innovative diagnostic tests and emerging AI technologies have real potential to help GPs triage patients with vague symptoms. For example, the VAPOR breath test for pancreatic cancer being developed at Imperial College and part funded by Pancreatic Cancer UK can detect volatile organic compounds released from tumours at an early stage. Results are showing that this quick test, which involves breathing into a bag at the GP’s surgery, can pinpoint whether a person is likely to have pancreatic cancer, with the results available to GPs in three days. This would put an end to the patient going backwards and forwards to the GP many times with non-specific symptoms and allow for earlier treatment. The test is now undergoing national clinical trials, and it could be in GP surgeries within the next five years. I end by saying: we live in hope.