Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of a potential link between a diagnosis of diabetes and an increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

The Department has made no recent assessment of a potential link between a diagnosis of diabetes and an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. However, it is recognised that diabetes is a risk factor for development of pancreatic cancer. This is reflected in the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence updated guideline Suspected cancer: recognition and referral, published on 23 June 2015. This sets out that an urgent referral for a computerised tomography scan or ultrasound scan should be considered in people aged 60 or over with weight loss and new-onset diabetes.