Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimates he has made of the variation in survival rates for pancreatic cancer patients between (a) UK regions and (b) the UK and other European countries.

The latest analysis of pancreatic cancer survival suggests that:

- According to a recent National Cancer Intelligence Network (NCIN) data briefing, pancreatic cancer one-year survival is improving in each of the countries of Great Britain. There is little difference in one-year survival between the countries in Great Britain.

- A recent paper in the Lancet looking at EUROCARE5 data showed variation between countries in five-year pancreatic cancer survival. Whilst the European mean was 6.9%, figures for the United Kingdom were as follows: England 4.7%, Wales 5.4%, Scotland 3.4%, Northern Ireland 3.0%.

- According to the NCIN UK Cancer e-atlas, the UK one-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer was 18.0%. However, there was regional variation in one-year survival rates across cancer networks in England, ranging from 14.0% to 25.6%.