Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they are taking to improve rates of early diagnosis of cancer.

Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government. We will continue to work with NHS England, Public Health England and other partners to achieve early diagnosis through improved screening programmes, Be Clear on Cancer campaigns to raise awareness of signs and symptoms of cancer to encourage people with signs and symptoms to present promptly to their general practitioner (GP), and help for GPs to refer more accurately.

We have committed to implementing recommendation 24 of the Independent Cancer Taskforce’s report that by 2020, everyone referred with a suspicion of cancer will receive either a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks. NHS England is working with partners across the health system to consider how best to take this forward. A copy of the Taskforce’s report Achieving World-Class Outcomes: A Strategy for England 2015-2020, is attached.

NHS England has launched a major early diagnosis programme, Accelerate, Co-ordinate, Evaluate (ACE), working jointly with Cancer Research UK and Macmillan Cancer Support to test new innovative approaches to identifying cancer more quickly. Outputs from the first wave of test sites, which commenced in April 2015, will be delivered on a phased basis, with the majority falling between September 2015 and December 2016. It is expected that ACE Wave 1 evaluation will be complete by mid-2017. An ACE Wave 2 is being planned.

In June this year, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence published an updated guideline ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral’. The guideline focuses on key symptoms, to make it easier to use and will continue to support GPs to identify patients with signs and symptoms of suspected cancer, and urgently refer them as appropriate. The guideline recommends a lower referral threshold for urgent referrals where cancer is suspected. A copy of the guideline is also attached.