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 improve the diagnosis of (a) lung, (b) pancreatic, (c) liver, (d) stomach, (e) brain, (f) oesophageal and (g) other less survivable cancers.

Achieving earlier and faster diagnosis of cancer is a priority for the National Health Service. That is why one of the core ambitions in the NHS Long Term Plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by 2028. NHS England’s plan to improve cancer outcomes and accelerate cancer diagnoses 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.

This includes the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaigns, which focus on specific symptoms linked to certain cancer types and tackle the fear-related barriers to seeking help from the NHS, across all cancer types. The introduction of non-specific symptoms pathways, of which there are now 102 across England, means general practitioners can rapidly refer patients whose symptoms do not align with one suspected cancer pathway, such as abdominal pain or weight loss.