Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the annual number of bowel cancer patients diagnosed under the age of 50.

The latest available data, from 2022, showed that there were 2,648 diagnoses of bowel cancer in people under the age of 50 years old. It is a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including bowel cancer at all ages, as early as possible.

Beginning this year, the NHS expanded its bowel cancer screening program by lowering the eligibility age to 50 years old to ensure earlier diagnosis for those at risk. NHS England also runs the Help Us Help You campaigns to increase knowledge of cancer symptom and to address barriers to acting on them, encouraging people to come forward as soon as possible to see their general practitioner. The bowel cancer campaign urged people to take up the offer of bowel screening when invited.

Furthermore, an NHS testing programme is helping to diagnose thousands of people with a genetic condition, Lynch Syndrome, that increases the chance of developing certain cancers, including bowel cancer. The national programme ensures that all people diagnosed with bowel cancer are offered genomic testing, along with their relatives, to help detect any cancers early and start timely treatment as needed.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on what will be done to improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, including for bowel cancer patients.