Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to (a) tackle the incidence of and (b) improve the outcomes for people with Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal cancer.

We are fully committed to improving early diagnosis and treatment of people with oesophageal cancer both nationally and locally. Alongside supporting Public Health England to increase symptom awareness amongst the general population, NHS England are also working to increase cancer symptom awareness amongst healthcare professionals, and to provide support to general practitioners in early diagnosis of cancer and pre-cancerous conditions.

NHS England’s oesophageal and gastric cancer service specification clearly defines what it expects to be in place for providers to offer evidence-based, safe and effective oesophageal cancer services, in line with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s clinical guideline, published in 2001, Improving Outcomes for Upper Gastro-Intestinal Cancers.

Public Health England will run a national Be Clear on Cancer campaign from 26 January to the end of February 2015 aimed at men and women aged 50 years and over, to raise awareness of oesophageal and stomach cancers. This campaign will also aim to identify patients with Barrett’s oesophagus, a possible or potential precursor to oesophageal cancer. Campaign plans are still to be finalised but are likely to include television, radio, press, digital and out of home advertising.

The decision to run this campaign was based on the evidence of significant impact from the regional campaign which ran in the Northern England Strategic Clinical Network region from February to March 2014.