Cancer: Young People

(asked on 29th November 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to increase (a) early diagnosis of and (b) access to treatment for young people with cancer.


Answered by
Andrew Stephenson Portrait
Andrew Stephenson
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 5th December 2023

The Department is taking steps in England to tackle cancer in young people by increasing early diagnosis and boosting access to treatment.

Improving early diagnosis is essential for young people with cancer. The National Health Service in England is working to deliver the ambition set in its Long Term Plan to diagnose 75% of cancers at stages one and two by 2028. This is backed by £2.3 billion of funding to transform diagnostic services, with 135 new community diagnostic centres opened, giving millions of patients the chance to access quicker, more convenient checks. In addition, the NHS in England is expanding direct access to diagnostic scans across all general practices, helping general practitioners recognise cancer symptoms in young people, cutting waiting times and speeding up diagnosis.

Ensuring all young people with cancer in England get access to ground-breaking treatment is vital. Treatment is provided at highly specialist Principal Treatment Centres, which manage care through multidisciplinary teams across diagnosis, treatment, and research. This means young people can get access to the best possible cutting-edge treatments and the latest clinical trials, including whole genome sequencing and precision personalised treatments. In July 2023, the Government announced a multi-year partnership agreement with the pharmaceutical giant BioNTech which will accelerate the company's clinical trials in the United Kingdom and could provide up to 10,000 patients with personalised cancer immunotherapies by 2030.

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