Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of trends in the level of regional variation for access to treatment 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 in England, 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.

Reducing inequalities and variation in cancer care, including for pancreatic cancer, is a priority for the Government. The NHS England Cancer Programme commissions clinical cancer audits, which provide timely evidence for cancer service providers of where patterns of care in England may vary, increase the consistency of access to treatments, and help stimulate improvements in cancer treatment and outcomes for patients. Rather than a single audit, NHS England commissions ten audits, by tumour type, including for pancreatic cancer. On 12 September 2024, the National Cancer Audit Collaborating Centre published its State of the Nation Report on Pancreatic Cancer, and the initial recommendations are informing improvements in treatment and care.