Bowel Cancer: Diagnosis
(asked on 10th November 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of bowel cancer patients diagnosed in emergency NHS settings in the last 12 months; and what steps he is taking to help reduce this number.
The National Disease Registration Service (NDRS) in NHS England is the cancer registry for England and collects data on the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. The service is available at the following link:
Rapid Cancer Registration Data (RCRD) provides a quick, indicative source of cancer data. It is provided to support the planning and provision of cancer services. The data is available at the following link:
Using the latest available Routes to Diagnosis estimates from the RCRD, there were 7310 bowel cancer patients diagnosed through Emergency Presentation between January and December 2024. This includes emergency routes via accident and emergency, emergency general practitioner referral (not urgent suspected cancer referral), emergency transfer, emergency admission, or attendance.
To support earlier diagnosis, the National Health Service is improving referral and diagnostic pathways, including the use of non-specific symptom pathways for patients whose symptoms, such as unexplained weight loss, fatigue, or abdominal discomfort, do not clearly align with a single cancer type. NHS England has also expanded general practice direct access to diagnostic tests, enabling faster investigation of concerning symptoms.