Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of diagnosis rates for pancreatic cancer in the last 12 months.

We will improve cancer survival rates by hitting all National Health Service cancer waiting time targets within five years, including for pancreatic cancer. We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. To improve diagnosis and outcomes, NHS England is delivering a range of interventions including implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms that do not align to a single tumour type, as is often the case with pancreatic cancer. 96 pathways are in place, and more are being introduced. NHS England is also increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests, alongside providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer and diagnose cancers sooner.

The most recent Faster Diagnosis Standard performance for upper gastrointestinal cancers, including oesophageal cancer, stomach cancer, small bowel cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer and cancers of the biliary system, is 76% against the 75% standard for May 2024.