Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has considered shortening the diagnostic pathway for ovarian cancer.

The Department has not considered shortening the diagnostic pathway for ovarian cancer. It is, however, a priority for the Government to support the National Health Service to diagnose cancer, including ovarian cancer, as quickly as possible, to treat it faster, and to improve outcomes. This is supported by NHS England’s key ambition on cancer to meet the faster diagnosis standard, which sets a target of 28 days from urgent referral by a GP or screening programme to patients being told that they have cancer, or that cancer is ruled out.

NHS England is supporting general practitioners in diagnosing ovarian cancer earlier in various ways. This includes encouraging GP direct access to tests for patients who fall outside of urgent suspected cancer referrals and sharing evidence-based assessments of where cancer recognition and referral guidance could be improved with the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, to inform referral updates. NHS England also funds Gateway-C, an early diagnosis education platform aimed at primary care, which includes a module on ovarian cancer.

Furthermore, the National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately drive up this country’s cancer survival rates.