Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 (a) prioritise research into pancreatic cancer and (b) encourage innovations in earlier diagnosis.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25, spent £141.6 million on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant to or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between the 2020/21 to 2024/25 financial years, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies.
One instance of this is ongoing research funded by the NIHR which aims into improve the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer by utilising artificial intelligence as well as reducing instances of missed cancer.
The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, including facilities, services, and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer.
The Office for Life Sciences’ Cancer Healthcare Goals programme aims to maximise and direct global industrial investment for the development and acceleration of new cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the United Kingdom through: providing research investments to support the development of innovations in the early stages of the development pathway and; supporting industry to accelerate cancer diagnostic and therapeutic technologies and devices in the latter stages of development into the National Health Service.
The programme launched the £10.9 million NIHR i4i Cancer Healthcare Goals: Early Cancer Diagnosis Clinical Validation and Evaluation Call. This has funded six projects which are developing breakthrough technologies that can increase the proportion of cancers which are detected earlier in the disease course and/or target health inequalities in cancer diagnosis.
This includes the miONCO-Dx multi-cancer early detection test, developed by XGenera, which can identify 12 of the most lethal and common cancers, including pancreatic cancer, at even the earliest stages from just 100 microlitres of blood. This technology is currently testing the diagnostic test accuracy on over 20,000 patient samples with promising early results.
The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome high quality funding applications into pancreatic cancer.
Asked by: Jeremy Hunt (Conservative - Godalming and Ash)
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 improve access to clinical trials for patients with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic cancer, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.
The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which supports National Health Service patients, the public, and NHS organisations across England to participate in high-quality research, including clinical trials into cancers.
NIHR provides an online service called 'Be Part of Research', which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across the country. It will ensure that more patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and to clinical trials.
The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials, on for example pancreatic cancer, to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of survival rates for bladder cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving cancer outcomes, including for bladder cancer, is a priority for the Government. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out further actions to improve earlier diagnosis, expand access to the latest treatments and technologies, and improve survival rates across England.
National cancer registry data shows a small but sustained decline in bladder cancer survival rates over recent years. One-year survival fell from approximately 72% to 69.6%, and five-year survival from 51.5% to 47.2% between 2007 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020.
To improve treatment times, we have invested £70 million of funding into new radiotherapy treatment machines to replace older, less efficient machines. These new machines are currently being rolled out to trusts throughout the country. These newer machines will reduce treatment times, boost productivity, and allow more patients to be seen over the same period.
In addition, non-specific symptom pathways have been introduced to speed up diagnosis for patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer but which do not align clearly with a specific tumour type. This helps ensure that more patients are referred, investigated, and diagnosed earlier, including cases of bladder cancer that present with broader or less specific symptoms.
The NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned 10 national clinical audits covering breast, ovarian, pancreatic, lung, prostate, oesophago-gastric, bowel, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and kidney cancers. These were selected as auditing was expected to have the greatest impact on reducing unwarranted variation in care. For this reason, there are currently no plans to undertake a national clinical audit for bladder cancer, though bladder cancer outcomes continue to be monitored through existing national cancer datasets.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of undertaking a National Bladder Cancer Audit.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving cancer outcomes, including for bladder cancer, is a priority for the Government. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out further actions to improve earlier diagnosis, expand access to the latest treatments and technologies, and improve survival rates across England.
National cancer registry data shows a small but sustained decline in bladder cancer survival rates over recent years. One-year survival fell from approximately 72% to 69.6%, and five-year survival from 51.5% to 47.2% between 2007 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020.
To improve treatment times, we have invested £70 million of funding into new radiotherapy treatment machines to replace older, less efficient machines. These new machines are currently being rolled out to trusts throughout the country. These newer machines will reduce treatment times, boost productivity, and allow more patients to be seen over the same period.
In addition, non-specific symptom pathways have been introduced to speed up diagnosis for patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer but which do not align clearly with a specific tumour type. This helps ensure that more patients are referred, investigated, and diagnosed earlier, including cases of bladder cancer that present with broader or less specific symptoms.
The NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned 10 national clinical audits covering breast, ovarian, pancreatic, lung, prostate, oesophago-gastric, bowel, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and kidney cancers. These were selected as auditing was expected to have the greatest impact on reducing unwarranted variation in care. For this reason, there are currently no plans to undertake a national clinical audit for bladder cancer, though bladder cancer outcomes continue to be monitored through existing national cancer datasets.
Asked by: Helen Maguire (Liberal Democrat - Epsom and Ewell)
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 increase survival rates for bladder cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving cancer outcomes, including for bladder cancer, is a priority for the Government. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will set out further actions to improve earlier diagnosis, expand access to the latest treatments and technologies, and improve survival rates across England.
National cancer registry data shows a small but sustained decline in bladder cancer survival rates over recent years. One-year survival fell from approximately 72% to 69.6%, and five-year survival from 51.5% to 47.2% between 2007 to 2011 and 2016 to 2020.
To improve treatment times, we have invested £70 million of funding into new radiotherapy treatment machines to replace older, less efficient machines. These new machines are currently being rolled out to trusts throughout the country. These newer machines will reduce treatment times, boost productivity, and allow more patients to be seen over the same period.
In addition, non-specific symptom pathways have been introduced to speed up diagnosis for patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer but which do not align clearly with a specific tumour type. This helps ensure that more patients are referred, investigated, and diagnosed earlier, including cases of bladder cancer that present with broader or less specific symptoms.
The NHS Cancer Programme has commissioned 10 national clinical audits covering breast, ovarian, pancreatic, lung, prostate, oesophago-gastric, bowel, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and kidney cancers. These were selected as auditing was expected to have the greatest impact on reducing unwarranted variation in care. For this reason, there are currently no plans to undertake a national clinical audit for bladder cancer, though bladder cancer outcomes continue to be monitored through existing national cancer datasets.
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 his department is taking to expand the roll out surveillance programmes to (a) identify people at highest risk of pancreatic cancer and (b) support earlier diagnosis.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Earlier diagnosis of cancers, including pancreatic cancer, is a priority for the Government. NHS England is working on case-finding approaches for less survivable cancers, where the evidence suggests this is appropriate. This includes a public-facing Family History Checker, which enables people, and their families, affected by pancreatic cancer to self-assess if they may inherit risk. Individuals identified as being at risk are referred directly to the European Registry of Hereditary Pancreatic Diseases research trial, which aims to understand inherited conditions of the pancreas. Referrals to the trial can be made by any healthcare professional across all health sectors or by individuals via self-referral, contributing to a centralised approach to case-finding.
The National Disease Registration Service has developed the National Inherited Cancer Predisposition Register (NICPR), which launched on 30 June. The NICPR looks at a wide range of cancers for which there is an increased inherited risk, including for less survivable cancers. It aims to identify high-risk individuals who are eligible for targeted screening and surveillance and will act as an electronic referral route into national screening programmes, where these exist.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 support research into pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25 spent £141.6 million on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant to or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies.
The NIHR has also invested £1.9 million in research to detect the early stages of gastrointestinal cancers, which includes pancreatic cancer, through a non-invasive breath test which will aim to streamline the referral process for primary care.
The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, for instance facilities, services, and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer. Further information on the PemOla trial is available at the following link:
https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/2025/07/18/pancreatic-cancer-precision-medicine-trial/
The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome high quality funding applications into pancreatic cancer.
Asked by: Alistair Strathern (Labour - Hitchin)
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 address the shortage of the drug pancrelipase for pancreatic exocrine insufficiency patients.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are ongoing supply issues with pancrelipase, also known by the brand name Creon, capsules, used by patients with conditions such as cystic fibrosis and certain cancers including pancreatic and neuroendocrine cancer. The Department is continuing to work with the suppliers of Creon and other licensed alternatives to help resolve the supply issues in the short and longer term. Through these discussions supply quantities have improved this year, and we are in regular communication with suppliers on expected volumes for 2026.The Department has also reached out to specialist importers who have sourced unlicensed stock to assist in covering the remaining gap in the market. We have widely disseminated comprehensive guidance to healthcare professionals, including National Health Service trusts, general practices, and pharmacies, about these supply issues, which provide advice on how to manage patients whilst there is disruption to supply. The Department will continue to work closely with the suppliers to resolve the issues as soon as possible, to ensure patients have continuous access to medicines.
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 assessment his department has made of the potential merits of a national rollout of community diagnostic centres to improve access to primary care services for people with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Ashley Dalton - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department remains committed to improving access to cancer diagnostic services and treatment, including for harder to diagnose tumour types such as pancreatic cancer.
The Government’s continued investment in community diagnostic centres (CDCs) enables the National Health Service to now deliver additional checks, tests, and scans at 170 CDCs, all of which deliver services 12 hours a day, seven days a week. This will enable the NHS to diagnose cancer faster and ensure that cancer patients, including those with pancreatic cancer, have timely access to primary care services.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham Edgbaston)
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 expand patient access to clinical trials for (a) less survivable cancers and (b) pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Zubir Ahmed - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with pancreatic cancer and other less survivable cancers, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments.
The Department funds research and research infrastructure through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which supports National Health Service patients, the public, and NHS organisations across England to participate in high-quality research, including clinical trials into cancers.
The NIHR provides an online service called Be Part of Research, which promotes participation in health and social care research by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest.
The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients across the country. It will ensure that more patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and to clinical trials.
The Government also supports the Rare Cancers Private Members Bill. The bill will make it easier for clinical trials, on for example pancreatic cancer, to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers.