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 tackle the rise in the incidence of cancer in young people under 25.

Cancer incidence rates over the last ten years for people under 25 years old show a minimal increase in absolute numbers. Unlike with many adult cancers, lifestyle-related risk factors (such as smoking) do not influence a young person’s risk of developing cancer so cancers are less preventable. The small increase in incidence therefore reflects changes in demographics rather than relative risk of having cancer at any given age.

As such, our focus is on research and ensuring that children and young people get the very best treatment and care if they do develop cancer. The NHS Long Term Plan has a series of commitments to improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including children and young people with cancer. For example, the National Health Service will actively support children and young people to take part in clinical trials, so that participation among children remains high, and among teenagers and young adults rises to 50% by 2025. Also, from 2019, the NHS will begin to offer all children with cancer whole genome sequencing to enable more comprehensive and precise diagnosis, and access to more personalised treatments.