Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to improve early diagnosis rates for pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Pancreatic cancer is the deadliest common cancer, and earlier diagnosis is imperative in improving treatment options and survivorship. The Government is committed to improving early diagnosis rates for all cancers, and as part of this, supports the NHS Long Term Plan, which includes a principal priority to increase the proportion of cancers diagnosed at stages 1 and 2 to 75% by 2028. This threshold is key to improving outcomes and survival rates for all types of cancer, including pancreatic.
We know that pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to the non-specific nature of its symptoms. To improve diagnosis and outcomes, NHS England is delivering a range of interventions including implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who have symptoms that do not align to a tumour type, as is often the case with pancreatic cancer. 96 pathways are in place, and more are being introduced. NHS England is also increasing general practice direct access to diagnostic tests, alongside 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.
Additionally, NHS England’s Getting it Right First Time programme has appointed a team of five specialist clinicians to lead a national review into services for pancreatic cancer patients in England. The new 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 with pancreatic cancer and their families can be improved.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Independent - Liverpool West Derby)
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 proportion of people who are provided a cancer diagnosis within 28 days of their referral for testing.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
The Department is taking steps to reduce cancer diagnosis and treatment waiting times across England, including the time between an urgent general practice referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients. The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care, and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity. Additionally, as outlined in the 2024/25 NHS England Planning Guidance, NHS England is providing over £266 million in cancer service development funding to Cancer Alliances, to support delivery of the operational priorities for cancer.
To help achieve the cancer waiting times standards, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways. This includes implementing non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, as well as timed cancer pathways focused on the most challenged pathways, such as lower gastrointestinal and skin cancer. The pathways aim to support improvements in operational performance and patient experience, as well as providing models to support sustainable improvement.
Furthermore, to improve cancer treatment we are maximising the pace of the roll-out of additional diagnostic capacity. We are currently delivering the second year of the three-year investment plan for establishing community diagnostic centres (CDCs). We are ensuring timely implementation of new CDC locations and upgrades to existing CDCs, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics. As of April 2024, 160 CDCs are operational, and have delivered almost 8 million tests, checks, and scans since July 2021. Additionally, we are supporting advances in radiotherapy. Since 2016, we’ve invested £162 million into cutting-edge radiotherapy equipment to replace or upgrade over 100 radiotherapy treatment machines.
We are committed to delivering the best possible outcomes for patients, and our approach is seeing success. Almost 344,000 people received their first cancer treatment in the 12 months to March 2024. Further, 2023/24 is the best year so far for the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), with the latest performance data showing that NHS England hit the FDS target for the second month in a row at 77.3%, above the standard of 75%. We have also reduced the 62 day or over cancer referral to treatment backlog, to pre-pandemic levels.
Asked by: Tom Hunt (Conservative - Ipswich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what her steps her Department is taking to improve early diagnosis rates for prostate cancer prior to the TRANSFORM trial findings.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Improving early diagnosis of cancer, including prostate cancer, remains a priority for the Government and we are working towards the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 and 2 by 2028. We know more people are surviving cancer in the United Kingdom than ever and that is partly down to early diagnosis.
Prior to the TRANSFORM trial, we are helping more people get diagnosed earlier by raising awareness, implementing the faster diagnosis standard and funding investment in research and diagnostics. NHS England takes steps to raise awareness of prostate cancer where there are opportunities to do so; for example NHS England partners with cancer alliances, charities and local representatives to reach people through projects in the heart of their communities. Cancer alliances have also been undertaking action to alert ‘at risk’ groups about prostate cancer, this is determined at a local level and so will vary depending on local needs and priorities.
To support faster diagnosis, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways and in October 2022 introduced the best practice timed pathway for prostate cancer. This guidance recommends those with suspected prostate cancer undertake a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) before biopsy, which ensures only those men most at risk of having cancer undergo an invasive biopsy.
In 2018, the Government announced £75 million of funding for clinical trials for prostate cancer, focusing on early diagnosis, survival rates and treatment options. Since April 2018, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) has awarded over £60 million to more than 28 research studies relevant to prostate cancer. These include randomised controlled trials of different treatments, a randomised controlled trial of different methods of biopsy and a survivors’ rehabilitation evaluation.
Alongside cutting-edge research, we are helping more people get diagnosed earlier for cancer and other conditions by rolling out additional tests, checks and scans at 160 locations across England through our Community Diagnostics Centres programme.
Nov. 26 2008
Source Page: Tables showing the number of patients for whom the primary diagnosis is prostate cancer and the procedure is brachytherapy treatment for each year from 2002/03 to 2006/07, broken down by NHS trust. 6 p.Found: Tables showing the number of patients for whom the primary diagnosis is prostate cancer and the procedure
Mar. 26 2024
Source Page: Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and ovarian function suppression (update)Found: Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and ovarian
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to reduce regional variations in early diagnosis of ovarian cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer treatment is a priority for the Government, as is increasing early cancer diagnosis, as both are key contributors to reducing cancer health inequalities. The National Health Service is improving cancer pathways to get people diagnosed faster once referred, and is looking into alternative routes into the system, including non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway, but who are at risk of being diagnosed with cancer. This will help support faster ovarian cancer diagnosis. 113 NSS pathways are currently operational, with more in development.
Asked by: Andrew Rosindell (Conservative - Romford)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she has taken to work with (a) the NHS and (b) other stakeholders to increase earlier cancer diagnoses.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Improving early diagnosis of cancer remains a priority for NHS England and the Government. NHS England is working towards the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two by 2028. The latest published data shows this was 54% between January to December 2021. Achieving this ambition will mean that, from 2028, 55,000 more people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis. Ministers and officials from the Department regularly meet with NHS England and other stakeholders, to discuss progress towards the ambition.
NHS England’s comprehensive Early Diagnosis strategy is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.
Mar. 27 2024
Source Page: Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and ovarian function suppression (update)Found: Early and locally advanced breast cancer: diagnosis and management - Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and ovarian
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 steps is she taking to help ensure that 75% of stageable cancers are diagnosed at stages 1 and 2.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson
Improving early diagnosis of cancer remains a priority for the Government. We are working towards the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition of diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage one and two, by 2028.
NHS England’s comprehensive Early Diagnosis strategy is based on six core strands of activity, from raising awareness of cancer symptoms and encouraging people to come forward, to implementing targeted interventions for particular cancer types that we know have previously experienced later stages of diagnosis.
To support this, NHS England introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) which sets a maximum target of a 28 day wait from urgent suspected general practitioner or screening referral to patients being told they have, or do not have, cancer. The FDS also intends to reduce unwarranted variation in England by understanding how long it is taking people to receive a diagnosis or all clear for cancer.
In order to find and diagnose cancers earlier, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways to support diagnosis within 28 days by implementing non-symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms that can indicate several cancers, as well as implementing timed cancer pathways.
Asked by: Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure NHS England is meeting the Faster Diagnosis Standard for lower gastrointestinal cancer referrals.
Answered by Lord Markham - Shadow Minister (Science, Innovation and Technology)
The Department is taking steps to achieve the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which aims to ensure people with cancer or suspected cancer, including lower gastrointestinal (GI) cancers, are diagnosed or have cancer ruled out within 28 days of referral. The Department is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 related backlogs in elective care, which includes plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment.
To achieve the FDS target specifically, NHS England has implemented a timed pathway for lower GI cancer, by requiring faecal immunochemical testing (FIT) for patients in primary and secondary care settings on a suspected lower GI cancer pathway. FIT testing prevents patients from having unnecessary colonoscopies, freeing up capacity for these procedures and ensuring the most urgent symptomatic patients are seen more quickly. Across 2022/2023 the proportion of lower GI referrals with a related FIT test rose from 24% to 69%.
NHS England is also implementing non symptom specific pathways for patients who present with non-specific symptoms, or combinations of non-specific symptoms, that can indicate several different cancers, including symptoms that may indicate lower GI cancers.
In addition, at the 2021 Spending Review the Government awarded £2.3 billion to transform diagnostic services from 2022 to 2025, most of which will help increase the number of community diagnostic centres (CDCs) up to 160 by March 2025, prioritising CDCs for cancer services. General practice teams have also been given direct access to tests like computed tomography scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and ultrasounds, helping to cut waiting times and speed up the diagnosis of, or ruling out of, cancer. This funding is also being used to expand endoscopy capacity within acute settings and in CDCs.