Cancer: Diagnosis

(asked on 6th October 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the target of diagnosing 75 per cent of cancers early by 2028, what plans he has to ensure that diagnosis rates of sarcomas meet that target.


Answered by
Jo Churchill Portrait
Jo Churchill
Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This question was answered on 4th November 2020

Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a top priority for the National Health Service, especially to help boost one-year and five-year survival rates in the future. That is why of one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028, which would be up from the current rate of around 50%. The early diagnosis ambition includes rare and less common cancers, such as sarcoma cancer, but individual ambitions have not been set for different tumour types. However, success cannot realistically be achieved without making progress on cancers such as sarcoma.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, priority has been given to those Long Term Plan commitments that also support recovery, such as establishing Rapid Diagnostic Centres (RDCs). As of October 2020, 45 RDCs were live across England.

Reticulating Splines