Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

NHS England is taking a wide range of activity to increase awareness and early diagnosis of, as well as tackle regional variations in, ovarian cancer. Since 2020 NHS England has run several Help Us Help You campaigns, that have included a focus on abdominal symptoms which, amongst other abdominal cancers, can be indicative of ovarian cancer.

NHS England relaunched the Help Us Help You cancer campaign on the 8 January 2024, to encourage people to get in touch with their general practitioner if they notice, or are worried about, symptoms that could be cancer. The campaign address barriers to people coming forward with suspected signs of cancer in general, and is not specific to ovarian cancer.

Raising awareness and improving early diagnosis of cancers, including ovarian cancer, remains a priority across all regions in England. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that, from 2028, around 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis.

To help increase cancer diagnosis rates, as of February 2024, there are 154 community diagnostic centres (CDCs) open with over six million checks carried out, with the aim of having 160 CDCs open by March 2025. We also plan to transform the way the National Health Service provides elective care, by increasing activity at dedicated and protected surgical hubs. These will help separate elective care facilities from urgent and emergency care, including for ovarian cancer. At present, the surgical hubs are focusing on a number of specialities, including gynaecology.

The NHS is improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway, but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This will help support faster ovarian cancer diagnosis. 108 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.