Asked by: Yasmin Qureshi (Labour - Bolton South East)
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 waiting times for treatments for (a) breast, (b) ovarian and (c) prostate cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Reducing waiting times for treatments of all types of cancer is a priority for the Government, as is increasing early cancer diagnosis as this is a key contributor to reducing cancer health inequalities. We are expanding capacity through our community diagnostic centres (CDCs) supported by £2.3 billion of capital funding with 150 CDCs currently operational and having delivered over six million additional tests, checks and scans including vital cancer checks since January 2021.
The planned Major Conditions Strategy will look at the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer and will consider a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for a range of cancer patients, including those less survivable cancers.
NHS England has commissioned six cancer clinical audits which will provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatments and outcomes for patients, including ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer. The Royal College of Surgeons began work on this audit in October 2022, and the first outcomes expected in September 2024.
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 proportion of pancreatic cancers were diagnosed at an early stage in the most recent year for which information is available.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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: 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 - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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: 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 - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
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.
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, if she will make a comparative assessment of the adequacy of funding her Department provides to help tackle (a) less survivable cancers compared to (b) other cancers; and if she will make it her policy to (i) create a framework assessing the challenges around cancers with lower survival rates and (ii) increase funding for those cancers.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is taking steps through NHS England to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with less survivable cancers. Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to helping achieve the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of patients at an early stage by 2028 and reducing inequalities in cancer survival. NHS England has commissioned new cancer clinical audits covering five cancer types, some of which are less survivable: pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer. All five audits will cover care delivered in England and Wales and will see an investment of approximately £5.4 million for an initial period of three years.
NHS England is responsible for funding allocations to integrated care boards (ICBs). ICBs then decide how that money is spent within the local integrated care system. The allocations process is independent of Government and NHS England takes advice on the underlying formula from the independent Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. NHS England produces a target allocation, or 'fair share' for each area, based on a complex assessment of factors such as demography, morbidity, deprivation, and the unavoidable cost of providing services in different areas. This means that funding decisions are fair and equitable.
Delivering more research is key to understanding and assessing the challenges around cancers with lower survival rates. As with other Government funders of health research, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (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 NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including less survivable cancers.
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, if she will make it her policy to develop a specific strategy on (a) research, (b) early diagnosis and (c) treatment for less survivable cancers.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We currently do not have such plans. Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to helping achieve the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of patients at an early stage by 2028 and reducing inequalities in cancer survival. Through NHS England, the Government is taking steps to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with less survivable cancers.
The planned Major Conditions Strategy will look at the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for a range of cancer patients.
NHS England has commissioned new cancer clinical audits covering five cancer types, some of which are less survivable: pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer. All five audits will cover care delivered in England and Wales and will see an investment of approximately £5.4 million for an initial period of three years.
The NHS ‘Help Us, Help You’ (HUHY) cancer campaigns increase awareness of cancer symptoms and encourage people to get checked. Some campaigns focus on specific symptoms linked to less survivable cancers, such as the HUHY abdominal and urological symptoms campaign, while others focus on fear as a barrier to help-seeking, which is relevant to all cancer types.
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 her Department is taking to help improve the diagnosis (a) rates and (b) treatments for ovarian cancer in (i) England and (ii) Romford constituency.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Improving the diagnosis rate and treatment for all cancers including for ovarian cancer, is a priority for this Government. The Department is working with NHS England and is taking steps across England to increase diagnosis rates, including setting stretching ambitions, supporting general practitioners (GPs) in referring patients, expanding diagnostic capacity and enabling more precise diagnosis through technology. These steps and actions apply in Romford as across England.
To encourage people to see their general practitioner if they notice symptoms that could be cancer, NHS England runs the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns, which address the barriers that deter patients from accessing the National Health Service. NHS England is currently running a ‘Help us Help you’ campaign highlighting the abdominal and urological symptoms of cancer, including ovarian cancer, and addressing the barriers that stop people from accessing services in the NHS.
NHS England introduced the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS) which aims to ensure patients have cancer diagnosed or ruled out within 28 days of urgent referral from a GP or screening services with a 75% standard ambition. To achieve the FDS, NHS England has implemented ‘non-specific symptom pathways’ for patients who have symptoms that do not align to a particular type of tumour, including for non-specific symptoms of pancreatic cancer.
Further to this, the Department has committed to £2.3 billion of capital funding to expanding diagnostic capacity across the NHS by rolling out more community diagnostic centres, delivering vital tests, scans and checks, including for ovarian cancer.
The Department invests in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR has funded six research projects into screening for ovarian cancer since 2018, with a combined total funding value of £3.8 million, including looking at the impact and effectiveness of different kinds of testing and screening and effectiveness of treatment options. The overall goal is to improve diagnosis and treatment to improve patient outcomes.
Asked by: George Howarth (Labour - Knowsley)
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 with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle inequalities in prostate cancer outcomes.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Department is not currently taking specific steps with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle inequalities in prostate cancer outcomes, but is tackling inequalities for all cancer outcomes. Experience and access is a key focus for everyone as part of the NHS Long Term Plan. The NHS Long Term Plan states that ‘where appropriate every person diagnosed with cancer will have access to personalised care, including needs assessment, a care plan and health and wellbeing information and support’.
A pancreatic cancer clinical audit, led by the Royal College of Surgeons, began in 2021, with the first outcomes expected in 2024. A key aim of the audit is to support National Health Service services to stimulate improvements in cancer detection, treatment and outcomes for patients, including improving survival rates.
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, what steps she is taking to improve survival rates for people with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
NHS England is already delivering a range of interventions that are expected to increase early diagnosis and improve outcomes for those with pancreatic cancer, therefore no additional steps are being taken by the Department. NHS England’s work 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. This creates 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 general practitioner direct access to diagnostic tests. NHS England have formed an expert group to consider a pathway for Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary cancers, including pancreatic cancer.
NHS England is also funding a new audit into pancreatic cancer 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. 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.
Asked by: Kerry McCarthy (Labour - Bristol East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment she has made of (a) NHS treatment standards and (b) the adequacy of survival rates for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
Standards for service delivery covering both benign and malignant disease is set out in the
NHS England’s Hepato-Pancreatic Biliary (HPB) service specification.
With support and input from HPB cancer clinical experts and patient and public voice representatives, including Pancreatic Cancer UK, the service specification has recently been revised to reflect current care pathways and update references to national policy, guidance and guidelines, including guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. The revised specification is expected to be in use across the National Health Service in England by April 2024.
Although no specific assessment has currently been made on the adequacy of the survival rates for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, the Government is committed to diagnosing 75% of stageable cancers at stage 1 & 2 by 2028. This threshold is key to improving outcomes and survival rates, including for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.