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 reduce the incidence of ovarian cancer; and if he will make a statement.

Prevention is a key focus of the NHS Long Term Plan, which sets out plans to tackle risk factors for cancer such as obesity, alcohol consumption and smoking. This will have a significant impact on improving health, including for those who are at risk of developing ovarian cancer. Over the next 10 years the National Health Service will extend the use of molecular diagnostic testing and routine offering genomic testing to all patients with cancer for whom it would be of clinical benefit.

From 2019 we will start the roll-out of new Rapid Diagnostic Centres across the country to upgrade and bring together the latest diagnostic equipment and expertise, building on 10 models piloted with Cancer Research UK, which have focused on diagnosing cancers where patients often present with non-specific symptoms, often the case with ovarian cancer, and may go to their general practitioner many times before being sent for tests, such as blood and stomach cancers.