Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
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 reduce the time taken to diagnose pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
NHS England is delivering a range of interventions that are 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 diagnostic tests.
NHS England is funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer, the aim of which is 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. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022 and a scoping exercise in consultation with key stakeholders has taken place to shape the direction of the audit. The first report is expected in October 2024.
In addition, the Getting It Right First Time team in NHS England is undertaking a deep dive into pancreatic cancer, which will highlight actions National Health Service providers need to take to improve services, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share.
May. 09 2024
Source Page: NHS England Cancer Programme progress update – Spring 2024Found: NHS England Cancer Programme progress update – Spring 2024
Aug. 20 2024
Source Page: Ovarian cancer QS updateFound: Ovarian cancer QS update
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to reduce the rates of emergency diagnosis of leukaemia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways (NSS) for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. As of December 2023, there are 113 NSS pathways already live, an increase from 12 live Rapid Diagnostic Centre pathways in March 2020, with over 5,500 patients seen per month and a total of over 100,000 referrals since May 2020.
Raising awareness, delivering more research, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving survival rates and are key priorities for the Government.
NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of all cancers, including leukaemia, to improve early diagnosis. In January 2024, NHS England relaunched their ‘Help Us Help You’ cancer awareness campaign, designed to increase earlier diagnosis of cancer by encouraging people to come forward with suspected signs of cancers. The campaign aims to reduce barriers to seeking earlier help, as well as to increase body awareness and knowledge of key red flag symptoms. This relaunch follows NHS England’s launch of their original ‘Help Us Help You’ campaigns in April 2020, a major public information campaign to persuade the public to seek urgent care and treatment when they needed it.
Delivering more research is key to understanding the causes of cancers and increasing survival rates of all cancers, including leukaemia, further. That is why investment in research and innovation is a priority for the Government. Our world-leading scientists and clinicians are driving the discovery, development, and testing of new treatments. The Department invested almost £122 million into cancer research in 2022/23 via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In addition, alongside Cancer Research UK, health departments across the United Kingdom are jointly funding a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs), collectively investing more than £35 million between 2017 and 2022. The network of 17 adult and 12 paediatric ECMCs enhances the existing bench-to-bedside pathway by supporting the most promising innovations from the academic and industry sectors into the cancer medicines of tomorrow.
More broadly, the National Health Service is working towards its Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 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. To support early diagnosis, the Government has invested £2.3 billion into community diagnostic centres across England which are speeding up diagnosis for cancer, with checks and scans being delivered at 160 sites across England. Cancer is also one of six major conditions included in our upcoming Major Conditions Strategy.
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.
Asked by: Mark Francois (Conservative - Rayleigh and Wickford)
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 the adequacy of five-year survival rates for (a) acute myeloid leukaemia and (b) other leukaemias.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The age-standardised, one-year net survival for adults, those aged 15 to 99 years old, diagnosed with leukaemia between 2016 and 2020 in England was 74.4%, and the five-year survival rate was 55.9%.
NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof, that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. The national evaluation showed that blood cancers are one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.
Raising awareness, delivering more research, including into new treatments, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving cancer survival.
Cancer patients are being failed, waiting too long for a diagnosis and treatment. We will bring down waits for cancer appointments with the Fit For the Future fund, doubling the number of state-of-the-art magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in the National Health Service to ensure early diagnosis and faster treatment.
Asked by: Paulette Hamilton (Labour - Birmingham Erdington)
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 increase the rate of diagnosis of pancreatic cancers at an early stage.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Latest figures from NHS Digital for cancers diagnosed between January and December 2021 show that 25% of pancreatic cancers were diagnosed at Stage 1 and 2.
NHS England is developing new dedicated urgent diagnostic pathways for these patients so that every cancer patient with concerning, but non-specific symptoms, gets the right tests at the right time in as few visits as possible. There are now 113 of these pathways live, which are seeing more than 5,500 patients per month.
NHS England is also providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at high-risk due to family history or at-risk genetic mutations and have formed an expert group to consider a pathway for Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancers, including pancreatic cancer.
NHS England is funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer to increase the consistency of access to treatments and to stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. 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 National Health Service providers need to take to improve services, as well as gathering examples of good practice to share.
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: 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.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have for developing a best practice timed pathway for leukaemia.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways (NSS) for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. As of December 2023, there are 113 NSS pathways already live, an increase from 12 live Rapid Diagnostic Centre pathways in March 2020, with over 5,500 patients seen per month and a total of over 100,000 referrals since May 2020.
Raising awareness, delivering more research, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving survival rates and are key priorities for the Government.
NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of all cancers, including leukaemia, to improve early diagnosis. In January 2024, NHS England relaunched their ‘Help Us Help You’ cancer awareness campaign, designed to increase earlier diagnosis of cancer by encouraging people to come forward with suspected signs of cancers. The campaign aims to reduce barriers to seeking earlier help, as well as to increase body awareness and knowledge of key red flag symptoms. This relaunch follows NHS England’s launch of their original ‘Help Us Help You’ campaigns in April 2020, a major public information campaign to persuade the public to seek urgent care and treatment when they needed it.
Delivering more research is key to understanding the causes of cancers and increasing survival rates of all cancers, including leukaemia, further. That is why investment in research and innovation is a priority for the Government. Our world-leading scientists and clinicians are driving the discovery, development, and testing of new treatments. The Department invested almost £122 million into cancer research in 2022/23 via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In addition, alongside Cancer Research UK, health departments across the United Kingdom are jointly funding a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs), collectively investing more than £35 million between 2017 and 2022. The network of 17 adult and 12 paediatric ECMCs enhances the existing bench-to-bedside pathway by supporting the most promising innovations from the academic and industry sectors into the cancer medicines of tomorrow.
More broadly, the National Health Service is working towards its Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 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. To support early diagnosis, the Government has invested £2.3 billion into community diagnostic centres across England which are speeding up diagnosis for cancer, with checks and scans being delivered at 160 sites across England. Cancer is also one of six major conditions included in our upcoming Major Conditions Strategy.
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.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve acute myeloid leukaemia survival rates.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
NHS England has implemented non symptom specific pathways (NSS) for patients who present with non-specific symptoms or combinations thereof that can indicate several different cancers. This includes leukaemia, which can present non-specific symptoms, such as unexpected weight loss and night sweats. As of December 2023, there are 113 NSS pathways already live, an increase from 12 live Rapid Diagnostic Centre pathways in March 2020, with over 5,500 patients seen per month and a total of over 100,000 referrals since May 2020.
Raising awareness, delivering more research, and improving early diagnosis of cancers, which includes blood related cancers such as leukaemia, are crucial for improving survival rates and are key priorities for the Government.
NHS England is taking steps to raise awareness of all cancers, including leukaemia, to improve early diagnosis. In January 2024, NHS England relaunched their ‘Help Us Help You’ cancer awareness campaign, designed to increase earlier diagnosis of cancer by encouraging people to come forward with suspected signs of cancers. The campaign aims to reduce barriers to seeking earlier help, as well as to increase body awareness and knowledge of key red flag symptoms. This relaunch follows NHS England’s launch of their original ‘Help Us Help You’ campaigns in April 2020, a major public information campaign to persuade the public to seek urgent care and treatment when they needed it.
Delivering more research is key to understanding the causes of cancers and increasing survival rates of all cancers, including leukaemia, further. That is why investment in research and innovation is a priority for the Government. Our world-leading scientists and clinicians are driving the discovery, development, and testing of new treatments. The Department invested almost £122 million into cancer research in 2022/23 via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In addition, alongside Cancer Research UK, health departments across the United Kingdom are jointly funding a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres (ECMCs), collectively investing more than £35 million between 2017 and 2022. The network of 17 adult and 12 paediatric ECMCs enhances the existing bench-to-bedside pathway by supporting the most promising innovations from the academic and industry sectors into the cancer medicines of tomorrow.
More broadly, the National Health Service is working towards its Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 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. To support early diagnosis, the Government has invested £2.3 billion into community diagnostic centres across England which are speeding up diagnosis for cancer, with checks and scans being delivered at 160 sites across England. Cancer is also one of six major conditions included in our upcoming Major Conditions Strategy.
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.