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 enable earlier diagnosis for pancreatic cancer.

The Government recognises that pancreatic cancer is one of the most difficult cancers to diagnose early. Its symptoms are often vague and non-specific, meaning many patients are diagnosed at a late stage when treatment options are limited and outcomes are poor. This underlines the critical importance of improving routes to earlier diagnosis.

To address this challenge, the National Health Service has implemented non-specific symptom (NSS) pathways across England. These services support faster and more accurate diagnosis for patients who present with symptoms that do not clearly indicate a specific type of cancer, including those often seen in pancreatic cancer. There are currently 115 NSS services operating, ensuring more patients benefit from quicker access to the right investigations.

The NHS has launched a £2 million initiative funding 300 general practices (GPs) to identify pancreatic cancer early by screening high-risk patients over 60 years old with new diabetes diagnoses and unexplained weight loss for urgent testing. More than 300 GPs across England will begin using the initiative, with dozens rolling it out now, and the rest to be up and running in the autumn.