The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2016-10-11.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve early diagnosis of childhood cancers; and if he will make available additional funding to improve such early diagnosis.
David Mowat
Improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for this Government, and was clearly highlighted in the report Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes published last year by the Independent Cancer Taskforce. Earlier diagnosis makes it more likely that patients, including children with cancer, will receive effective treatments. We have committed to implementing all the recommendations of the Taskforce including that, by 2020, everyone referred with a suspicion of cancer will receive either a definitive diagnosis or the all-clear within four weeks (28 days).
NHS England has the funds necessary to improve cancer services over the next five years, including up to £300 million by 2020 to support earlier diagnosis of cancer and the £10 billion of real terms increase in National Health Service funding by 2020-21. The recommendations in the Taskforce report give direction as to where these funds should be targeted.
In order to continue to support general practitioners (GPs) to identify patients whose symptoms may indicate cancer and urgently refer them as appropriate, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published an updated suspected cancer referral guideline in June 2015. The guideline ‘Suspected cancer: recognition and referral’ includes new recommendations for childhood cancers.
NICE also addressed generally, non-site specific symptoms of concern in children and young people, recommending that GPs should take into account the insight and knowledge of parents and carers when considering making a referral for suspected cancer. NICE noted that more lives could be saved each year in England if GPs followed the new guideline, which encourages GPs to think of cancer sooner and lower the referral threshold.