Cancer: Mortality Rates

(asked on 23rd June 2025) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include targets on improving survival for (a) ovarian cancer and (b) other rare and less common cancers in the upcoming national cancer plan.


Answered by
Ashley Dalton Portrait
Ashley Dalton
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 8th July 2025

The Department is committed to improving survival outcomes for all cancer types, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, by catching it early, and treating it faster and more effectively. As a first step, the National Health Service is now delivering an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week, to support early diagnosis and faster treatment.

NHS England is continuing the roll out of community diagnostic centres to ensure that patients can access the diagnostic tests they need as quickly as possible. The NHS is also improving pathways to get people diagnosed faster once they are referred, including non-specific symptom pathways for patients who do not fit clearly into a single urgent cancer referral pathway.

To ensure patients have access to the best treatment for ovarian cancer, NHS England commissioned an audit on ovarian cancer. Using routine data collected on patients diagnosed with ovarian cancer in an NHS setting as part of their care and treatment, the audits bring together information to look at what is being done well, where it’s being done well, and what needs to be improved. The audit published its report in September 2024 and officials across NHS England and the Department are considering its findings.

Further actions on improving the survival of all cancers, including ovarian cancer and other rare and less common cancers, will be outlined in the forthcoming National Cancer Plan, which will be published later this year. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. The goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years, and the ambition will be set out as part of the National Cancer Plan.

Reticulating Splines