Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to improve the (a) recognition of the signs and symptoms of rare cancers by General Practitioners and (b) rate of referral to specialist diagnostic testing for patients who present with signs and symptoms of rare cancers.

The Government is committed to supporting the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including rare and less common cancers, earlier and to treat them faster.

The Department is taking steps to improve public awareness of cancer signs and symptoms, including rare and less common cancers, through supporting the NHS in streamlining referral routes, and increasing the availability of diagnostic capacity through the roll-out of more community diagnostic centres. The Department is also committed to ensuring that general practitioners have the right training and systems to identify cancer, including rare and less common cancers. The use of specific clinical decision support tools is agreed at a local level.

Furthermore, the NHS is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type. The Department will continue to look at opportunities to utilise artificial intelligence to transform diagnostic performance and ultimately bring down waiting times, including for cancer.

The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the NHS will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including for rare and less common cancers. The plan will aim to speed up diagnosis and treatment and will ensure that all patients have access to the latest treatments and technology.