Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if his Department will (a) introduce emergency presentation as a proxy staging measure for non-stageable blood cancers and (b) apply a corresponding national target to (i) measure and (ii) support reduction of late diagnosis of blood cancer.

There are no current plans to introduce a specific proxy staging measure or a corresponding national target to support the earlier diagnosis of blood cancers. To tackle late diagnoses of blood cancers, the National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. Blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

The National Disease Registration Service, through the National Cancer Registration and Analysis Services, collects information on how many people in England have blood cancer, labelled as haematological neoplasms. The National Disease Registration Service’s website shows the number of people treated for different tumour types by treatment type, as well as survival rates, mortality rates, and data on urgent suspected cancer referrals. This data supports service provision and commissioning in the NHS, clinical audits, and public health and epidemiological research, all of which contributes to improved outcomes, including for blood cancer patients. Further information is available at the following link:

https://www.cancerdata.nhs.uk/

As part of the Government’s five long-term missions, we have launched a 10-Year Health Plan to reform the NHS and make it fit for the future. The plan will set out a bold agenda to deliver on the three big shifts needed to move healthcare from hospital to the community, from analogue to digital, and from sickness to prevention, and will be co-designed with the public, staff, and patients. I would encourage you to engage via our online portal, which is available at the following link:

https://change.nhs.uk/en-GB/

My Rt Hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been clear that there should be a National Cancer Plan. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be. We will provide updates on this in due course, including on how we plan to engage blood cancer partners.

I met with the Hon. Member for Poole and Blood Cancer UK, a member of the Blood Cancer Alliance, on 22 October 2024 to discuss the UK Blood Cancer Action Plan.