Pancreatic Cancer: Screening

(asked on 21st February 2018) - View Source

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 ensure that the NHS has the capacity to offer people with suspected pancreatic cancer an FDG-PET/CT scan, as recommended in the recent NICE guideline, Pancreatic cancer in adults: diagnosis and management.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 28th February 2018

In 2015, NHS England completed a Phase I procurement of positron emission tomography–computed tomography (PET-CT) services. This procurement secured a £87 million investment in PET-CT services and installation of new scanners in over 30 sites across England. NHS England is currently in the process of procuring services for Phase II of this programme which were not part of the first phase of procurement. Two of the aims of this procurement are to secure services that are high-quality and offer value for money and ensure there is sufficient capacity to meet future needs.

NHS England already commissions the use of fludeoxyglucose (FDG) PET-CT in the management of both metastatic and recurrent pancreatic disease. Work is underway by the Cancer Diagnostics Clinical Reference Group to review alignment of our current clinical commissioning policy and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance on pancreatic cancer; this work is expected to be completed by the Cancer Diagnostics Clinical Reference Group by the end of March 2018. Should there be a need to review our clinical commissioning policy for FDG PET-CT for pancreatic cancer as a result of the guideline, this would be subject to NHS England’s standard operating protocols and procedures.

Reticulating Splines