Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve early diagnosis rates of blood cancers in Shropshire.

The Department continues to support the National Health Service to diagnose and treat cancer, including blood cancers, as early and fast as possible. We recognise that patients with cancers with non-specific symptoms (NSS) such as blood cancer, are waiting too long for diagnosis and subsequent treatment.

To tackle late, emergency setting diagnoses of blood cancers, the NHS has implemented NSS pathways for patients who present with symptoms such as weight loss and fatigue, which do not clearly align to a tumour type. There are currently 115 NSS services operating in England, including in Shropshire, with blood cancers being one of the most common cancer types diagnosed through these pathways.

Early diagnosis is a key focus of the National Cancer Plan. It will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including speeding up diagnosis and treatment and ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, ultimately driving up this country’s cancer survival rates.