Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase in the number of men dying as a result of prostrate cancer.

Prostate cancer is a disease that mainly affects men over the age of 55 and the numbers of men diagnosed has increased due to the ageing population. Increased use of the prostate specific antigen blood test in primary care over the last two decades has also resulted in more men being referred to secondary care and an increase in diagnoses of prostate cancer. Cancer survival is now at an all-time high in England and five-year survival for prostate cancer is 88.3%, higher than for most other cancers. NHS England continues to support effective new treatments and diagnostics and implement the ambitious independent Cancer Taskforce strategy and is working closely with leading clinical experts and Prostate Cancer UK to bring the latest research on this disease into practice. Targeted work is also being undertaken to ensure prostate cancer is diagnosed quickly and that everyone receives the best care wherever they live across the country.