Asked by: Rupa Huq (Labour - Ealing Central and Acton)
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 diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer in Ealing Central and Acton constituency.
Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is supporting the National Health Service in taking steps to improve diagnosis times for pancreatic cancer across England, including for the Ealing Central and Acton constituency. The Government is committed to meeting all three NHS cancer waiting time standards across England within the next five years. Meeting these will ensure no patient waits longer than they should for diagnosis or treatment.
We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. NHS England is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms, such as unexplained weight-loss and fatigue, that do not align to a single tumour type, and pancreatic cancer is one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways. NHS England is also providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, as well as increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests.
In March 2024, NHS England published guidance for providers and systems to implement a timed Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancer pathway with the aim to ensure patients receive a diagnosis or that cancer is ruled out within 28 days of urgent referral. The pathway aims to improve delays in diagnosis, with less time between referral and receiving the outcome of diagnostic tests.
Asked by: Dan Carden (Labour - Liverpool Walton)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve pancreatic cancer outcomes.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England to deliver interventions to improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer across England. Early diagnosis is imperative to improving outcomes for all types of cancer, especially pancreatic due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. As the first step to ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment, we will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week.
For pancreatic cancer specifically, NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms, and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
Additionally, the Getting it Right First-Time team in NHS England is undertaking a deep dive into pancreatic cancer, which will highlight good practice and actions National Health Service providers need to take to improve services. NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer, aiming to provide regular and timely evidence to cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, to increase the consistency of access to treatments and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients.
Asked by: Andrew Cooper (Labour - Mid Cheshire)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help improve research into treatments for pancreatic cancer; and how much funding his Department has allocated to pancreatic cancer research in each of the last 14 years.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Research is crucial in tackling cancer. The Department spends £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer the largest area of spend at more than £121.8 million in 2022/23. NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group, reflecting its high priority.
NIHR have committed more than £7.6 million to pancreatic directly funded cancer research, across 15 research projects, since 2010/11. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into all cancer types. Funding applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition.
The following table shows the amount of funding allocated to pancreatic cancer research in each year since 2010/11 committed by NIHR:
Year | Total (£,000) |
2010/11 | 3,100 |
2011/12 | |
2012/13 | |
2013/14 | |
2014/15 | 66.5 |
2015/16 | 291 |
2016/17 | 66.5 |
2017/18 | 2,000 |
2018/19 | |
2019/20 | 149.5 |
2020/21 | 440.7 |
2021/22 | 544.3 |
2022/23 | 150 |
2023/24 | 839.5 |
Additionally, NIHR infrastructure funding supports the country’s leading experts to develop and deliver high-quality translational, clinical, and applied research that is funded by the NIHR’s research programmes, other public funders of research, charities and the life sciences industry. In doing so, our investment plays a crucial role in underpinning the research funded by our partners.
As part of our commitment to driving more and better research into less survivable cancers, the Government awarded £2 million to new interdisciplinary research teams tackling hard to treat cancers, via the Medical Research Council’s two-day cancer ‘sandpit’ strategic funding opportunity in 2023 focused on technological innovation for understanding cancers, including pancreatic, with the poorest survival rates.
Asked by: Mark Pritchard (Conservative - The Wrekin)
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 early (a) diagnosis and (b) treatment of pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is delivering a range of interventions that are expected to improve early diagnosis and treatment for patients with suspected and diagnosed pancreatic cancer. For early diagnosis, this includes providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those patients at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, and diagnose cancers sooner. New pathways are being created to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms that could be linked to a range of cancer types. General practice direct access to diagnostic tests is also being increased.
To improve the consistency of access to treatments, NHS England is funding an audit into pancreatic cancer which aims to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first report is expected in October 2024.
NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time programme has also appointed a team of five specialist clinicians to lead a national review into services for pancreatic cancer patients in England. The workstream supports the delivery of the Optimal Care Pathway, a Pancreatic Cancer UK-led initiative which has brought together 300 health professionals and people affected to agree on how standards of diagnosis, treatment, and care of those patients with pancreatic cancer and their families can be improved, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share.
Asked by: Luke Charters (Labour - York Outer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department plans to take to improve outcomes for patients who have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is working with NHS England to deliver interventions to improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer across England. Early diagnosis is imperative to improving outcomes for all types of cancer, especially pancreatic due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. As the first step to ensuring faster diagnosis and treatment, we will deliver an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week. For pancreatic cancer specifically, NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms, and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests.
Additionally, the Getting it Right First-Time (GIRFT) team in NHS England is undertaking a deep dive into pancreatic cancer, which will highlight good practice and actions National Health Service providers need to take to improve services. NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer, aiming to provide regular and timely evidence to cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, to increase the consistency of access to treatments and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients.
Nov. 28 2011
Source Page: Table showing registrations of newly diagnosed cases of pancreatic cancer by primary care organisation for the year 2008/09. 8 p.Found: Table showing registrations of newly diagnosed cases of pancreatic cancer by primary care organisation
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding her Department has allocated to pancreatic cancer research in each of the last five years.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.3 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR's research expenditure for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23, and the NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group.
The NIHR funded nine research projects on pancreatic cancer since 2018/19, with a committed funding value of £4.3 million.
The following table shows NIHR spending on pancreatic cancer research for the period April 2018 to March 2023, based on contracted funding over this period, correct as of 29 April 2024:
Year commenced | Pancreatic cancer research awards actual spending |
2018/19 | £545,000 |
2019/20 | £525,000 |
2020/21 | £348,000 |
2021/22 | £145,000 |
2022/23 | £735,000 |
Total | £2.3 million |
In addition, NIHR Biomedical Research Centres and NIHR Clinical Research Facilities spent a further £6.5 million between 2018/19 and 2022/23 supporting an annual portfolio of around 85 early clinical studies in pancreatic cancer.
The NIHR also supports delivery in the health and care system of research into pancreatic cancer, funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors. Since 2018/19 the NIHR supported 73 clinical research studies through the Clinical Research Network.
The NIHR funds research in response to proposals received from scientists rather than allocating funding to specific disease areas. The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pancreatic cancer. It is not usual practice to ring-fence funds for particular topics or conditions. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to help improve (a) research into treatments for and (b) (i) emotional and (ii) financial support for people living with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.3 billion per year in health research, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23, and the NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group.
The NIHR funded nine research projects on pancreatic cancer since 2018/19, with a committed funding value of £4.3 million. The NIHR continues to welcome funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pancreatic cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition.
The NIHR also supports delivery of research into pancreatic cancer in the health and care system, funded by research funding partners in the charity and public sectors. Since 2018/19 the NIHR supported 73 clinical research studies through the Clinical Research Network.
Additionally, NIHR Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) and NIHR Clinical Research Facilities spent a further £6.5 million between 2018/19 and 2022/23, supporting an annual portfolio of approximately 85 early clinical studies into pancreatic cancer. NIHR BRCs are collaborations between world-leading universities and National Health Service organisations, that bring together academics and clinicians to translate discoveries from basic or discovery science into clinical research.
For emotional and financial support, patient feedback is monitored through the National Cancer Patient Experience Survey, with the latest results showing an overall experience of 8.88 out of 10. In areas such as support for health and wellbeing, and information on financial help, results were positive but showed room for improvement. NHS England continues to support trusts to take action to improve cancer patient support.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of recent trends in the number of pancreatic cancer diagnoses; and what steps he plans to take to help support research into less treatable cancers.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The National Health Service’s latest available data shows that the number of pancreatic cancer cases diagnosed in 2021 was 9,728, compared to 9,263 in 2019, showing a gradual increase. Delivering more research is key to understanding and assessing the challenges around cancers with lower survival rates. The Department invests £1.3 billion per year into health research, through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including all cancers. As with other Government funding of health research, the NIHR does not allocate funding for specific disease areas, including less survivable cancers. The level of research spend in a particular area is driven by factors including scientific potential and the number and scale of successful funding applications.
The NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned 10 clinical cancer audits, which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. This includes an audit on pancreatic cancer. NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time (GIRFT) programme has appointed a team of 5 specialist clinicians to lead a national review into services for pancreatic cancer patients in England. As part of their review, the GIRFT clinicians are visiting 23 networks. Early evidence shows that tracking patients throughout their pathway, both geographically and chronologically, supports an optimal service, making good use of Clinical Nurse Specialists. The final report will be completed in 2024/25.
Asked by: Theresa Villiers (Conservative - Chipping Barnet)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions she has had with NHS England on progress on improving outcomes for patients suffering from pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Tackling cancer is a key priority for the Government. Ministers and officials continue to work closely with NHS England to increase positive outcomes for all cancer types, including pancreatic cancer. The National Health Service is delivering a range of interventions expected to increase early diagnosis and improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer. This includes: providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk, to identify lesions before they develop into cancer, and diagnose cancers sooner; creating new pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms that could be linked to a range of cancer types; and increasing direct access for general practitioners to arrange diagnostic tests.
NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer to increase the consistency of access to treatments, and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first report is expected in October 2024. In addition to this, the Getting it Right First Time team in NHS England is undertaking a deep dive into pancreatic cancer, which will highlight actions NHS providers need to take to improve services, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share.
The NHS is working towards its Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that an additional 55,000 people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis. With progress made on reducing waiting times, cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage more often, with survival rates improving across almost all types of cancer.