Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the level of provision of pancreatic cancer treatment on the NHS; and if he will make a statement.

Over the last 15 years, services for pancreatic cancer have been significantly strengthened within the National Health Service. This includes clearer diagnostic pathways, decision making by specialist multi-disciplinary teams and centralisation of pancreas surgery within specialist teams.

Between 1999 and 2009, following reorganisation of pancreas services, there are now twice as many patients accessing surgery, and one year survival has increased by 5%. The benefits of the United Kingdom model are recognised internationally.

It is recognised that pancreatic cancer is a challenging disease for a number of reasons. There is a lack of any effective drug therapies and research opportunities are restricted by the small number of patients with the disease (approximately 7,000 annually), and the relatively low survival rates.

Symptoms are variable and difficult to identify, and there is presently no diagnostic test, although a test is in the research phase.