Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the National Disease Registration Service’s Rapid Cancer Registration and Treatment Data, what recent assessment he has made of the trend in the level of prostate cancer diagnoses up to the end of April 2021; and what steps he is taking to improve the diagnosis of prostate cancer.
The number of people coming forward with symptoms and being referred with suspected cancer recovered throughout 2020. Urological cancers, including prostate cancer, referrals were almost at pre-pandemic levels by June 2021.
The latest phase of the ‘Help us help you’ campaign raises awareness of abdominal symptoms of cancer, including for urological cancers. Awareness of prostate cancer risk and symptoms is also being raised through media and charities. Those presenting to their general practitioner with symptoms which could be prostate cancer will be assessed and referred in line with National Institute for Health and Care Excellence’s guidance, which states that they should be referred on a suspected cancer pathway for an appointment within two weeks. This guidance has remained in place throughout the pandemic.