Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of five-year survival rates for (a) acute myeloid leukaemia and (b) other leukaemias.

The age-standardised, one-year net survival for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed with leukaemia between 2016 and 2020 in England was 74.4%, and the five-year survival rate was 55.9%.

NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. The national evaluation showed that blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

Raising awareness, delivering more research, including into new treatments, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving cancer survival.

Cancer patients are being failed, waiting too long for a diagnosis and treatment. We will bring down waits for cancer appointments with the Fit For the Future fund, doubling the number of state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in the National Health Service to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment.