Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the adequacy of optimal care pathways for each of the less survivable cancers.

We are committed to improving the treatment and care of all cancers, including those that have historically poor outcomes. We recognise that progress in improving survival rates for these cancers has been slow and survival rates remain low. For many of these cancers we do not currently have the answer, and the focus needs to be on research and innovation, and ensuring that proven innovations, once they are discovered, are adopted swiftly across the health service. The National Health Service bases such advice on that provided from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). Clinical commissioning groups and providers are encouraged to commission services in line with the latest NICE guidance.

In October 2018, the Government announced a package of measures that will be rolled out across the country with the aim of seeing three quarters of all cancers detected at an early stage by 2028. The plan will radically overhaul screening programmes, provide new investment in state of the art technology to transform the process of diagnosis, and boost research and innovation. For example, new targeted lung health check programmes will see people at risk of lung cancer offered smoking cessation interventions and enable more people to have curative treatment. This is part of the long-term plan for the NHS and forms part of how the Government will achieve its ambition of 55,000 more people surviving cancer for five years in England each year from 2028.