Childhood Cancer Outcomes

Debate between Helen Hayes and Neale Hanvey

Tuesday 26th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Neale Hanvey (Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath) (Alba)]

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Gosport (Dame Caroline Dinenage) for securing this enormously important debate, and to the right hon. Member for Alyn and Deeside (Mark Tami) for his very moving personal account.

My observations are based on a lifetime working in NHS cancer care and on having led the first Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Middlesex Hospital for a period of time—this was the world in which I existed. I hope that the Minister will pay attention to some of my observations from that career, because I think they will be useful in informing policy.

I agree that there is a need for an overarching strategy, but some of the problems discussed today are perennial; they have been there forever, and there really needs to be a concerted effort to address them. Unfortunately, some of them cannot just be solved with money. In addressing diagnosis, treatment and ultimately outcomes and survivorship, we need to think about why diagnosis is delayed, about why diseases are considered to be rare and about the ultimate impact on outcomes for children and young people. The reason for many late diagnoses is that most GPs never see a case of childhood cancer, let alone cancer in an adolescent, so the effort that goes into raising awareness and training may seem misplaced, given how rare an occurrence it is.

The other challenge is that many of the symptoms with which children present are things that GPs see day in, day out. Fevers, lumps and bumps, lethargy, pains in the tummy—all those symptoms are standard fare, so it is very difficult to cut through to the truth and identify types of cancer. The essential thing is a greater emphasis on driving awareness. It has to be a core part of any differential diagnosis when examining a child that there is always a chance that they have something much more sinister than a cough, cold or fever. It is about making sure that that is built into standard practice.

Another point that I would like to make, although I may run out of time, is that these diseases are incredibly rare. Because the subsets are so rare, it is very difficult to do longitudinal studies.

[Helen Hayes]

The hon. Member speaks about the rarity of these diseases. Will he join me in recognising, as other hon. Members have done today, the work on brain cancer that is being done in the name of my predecessor Baroness Tessa Jowell? It provides a model for a children’s cancer mission to bring together expertise in the area.

[Neale Hanvey]

I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. I agree: there has been an enormous amount of work across a range of disease profiles, and I want very swiftly to name some of the key people with whom I have had the great pleasure to work in my time. Professor Jeremy Whelan has done a huge amount of work on soft tissue sarcomas and bone tumours, and Professor Andy Pearson from the Royal Marsden Hospital has done a huge amount of work as well. I also want to mention all the members of the multidisciplinary teams who make that kind of research and progress viable.

Let me finally say something about the bigger picture. Cancer does not exist in a bubble; it exists in the social fabric of where we live, and people with cancer, particularly children, are not immune to challenges such as the cost of living crisis. If we want to do a robust piece of work in order to make progress, it must involve research and treatment, but it must also improve the life chances of children more generally.