Mark Durkan – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Durkan on 2015-12-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to improve one-year cancer survival rates over the next five years.

Jane Ellison

We want to lead the world in fighting cancer. Survival rates have never been higher, but we want to go further. In England, the independent Cancer Taskforce’s five-year strategy for cancer, Achieving World-Class Cancer Outcomes, published in July 2015, recommends improvements across the cancer pathway with the aim of improving survival rates.

Updated National Institute for Health and Care Excellence referral guidelines for suspected cancer could save about 5,000 lives with general practitioners urged to think of cancer sooner and lower the referral threshold for tests. Whilst health is, of course, a devolved matter, we know that these guidelines are often used by the devolved administrations.