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 improve early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

The Government is committed to improving care pathways for all those with cancer, including pancreatic cancer. This threshold is key to improving outcomes and survival rates, including for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is difficult to diagnose due to its unspecific symptoms. The National Health Service is implementing non-specific symptom pathways for patients who present with vague and non-site-specific symptoms which do not clearly align to a tumour type. This includes symptoms of pancreatic cancer.

NHS England is providing a route into pancreatic cancer surveillance for those at inherited high-risk to identify lesions before they develop into cancer. NHS England is additionally creating pathways to support faster referral routes for people with non-specific symptoms and is increasing direct access for general practitioners to diagnostic tests. We have submitted an expression of interest to be a part of the upcoming national case finding pilot, which aims to improve earlier diagnosis of pancreatic cancers.