Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to encourage a greater awareness of the (a) symptoms, (b) diagnosis, (c) research, (d) treatment and (e) support for the families of children affected by cancer.

Improving awareness and early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government, and was clearly highlighted in the report Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes (2015) by the Independent Cancer Taskforce. Earlier diagnosis makes it more likely that patients will receive effective treatments. We have committed to implementing recommendation 24 of the report that by 2020, everyone referred with a suspicion of cancer will receive either a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks. This standard will be underpinned by investment of up to £300 million more in diagnostics each year by 2020.

In order to continue to support general practitioners (GPs) to identify patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an updated suspected cancer referral guideline in June 2015. The guideline, ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral’ includes new recommendations for childhood cancers. NICE also addressed generally, non-site specific symptoms of concern in children and young people, recommending that GPs should take into account the insight and knowledge of parents and carers when considering making a referral for suspected cancer.

The Department’s National Institute for Health Research operates the UK Clinical Trials Gateway: www.ukctg.nihr.ac.uk. This publicly available website pulls through information about clinical trials and other research from several different United Kingdom registers, including research on childhood cancers.

Over the last four decades there have been major advances in the development of successful treatment strategies for childhood cancers, and much of this has been due to the use of standardised protocols in clinical trials and centralisation of care. NICE Improving Outcomes Guidance for Children and Young People serves to assist National Health Service trusts in planning, commissioning and organising services for children and young people with cancer. It recommends, among other things, that all care must be provided in age-appropriate facilities. The treatment children receive will depend on the type of cancer they have, and the most common treatments include surgery to remove the tumour, chemotherapy and radiotherapy to destroy cancer cells, and stem cell and bone marrow transplants. In 2012, the Government provided £250 million to build two proton beam therapy centres in England (at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester), the first of which will be fully operational in 2018.

The Government is working closely with cancer charities to ensure children get the support they need during and after their treatment. Last year we announced everyone diagnosed with cancer in England will benefit from an individually tailored recovery package by 2020, a key recommendation by the independent Cancer Taskforce. The recovery package, developed by Macmillan Cancer Support, will signpost people to rehabilitation and financial support services to help with the costs of cancer.