Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make it her policy to develop a specific strategy on (a) research, (b) early diagnosis and (c) treatment for less survivable cancers.

We currently do not have such plans. Making improvements across different cancer types is critical to helping achieve the NHS Long Term Plan ambition of diagnosing 75% of patients at an early stage by 2028 and reducing inequalities in cancer survival. Through NHS England, the Government is taking steps to improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with less survivable cancers.

The planned Major Conditions Strategy will look at the early diagnosis and treatment of cancer. The Strategy will look at a wide range of interventions and enablers to improve outcomes and experience for a range of cancer patients.

NHS England has commissioned new cancer clinical audits covering five cancer types, some of which are less survivable: pancreatic cancer, ovarian cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, kidney cancer and primary and metastatic breast cancer. All five audits will cover care delivered in England and Wales and will see an investment of approximately £5.4 million for an initial period of three years.

The NHS ‘Help Us, Help You’ (HUHY) cancer campaigns increase awareness of cancer symptoms and encourage people to get checked. Some campaigns focus on specific symptoms linked to less survivable cancers, such as the HUHY abdominal and urological symptoms campaign, while others focus on fear as a barrier to help-seeking, which is relevant to all cancer types.