Cancer Strategy — House of Commons, 2018-02-22
Topic: Health
Nicholas Dakin (Labour, Centre-left): Absolutely, and I will come on to that later As the hon. Member for East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow (Dr Cameron), who introduced the debate so well, pointed out, we are now almost halfway into the five-year implementation plan of the Government’s cancer strategy for England. At this mid-point, there are concerns about the rate of progress being made, and the workforce plan is not yet as effective as we would wish For example, as the Royal College of Pathologists has said, it can take up to 15 years to train a pathologist. Pathology services are unable to recruit to vacant posts today, and it is anticipated that a third of consultant histopathologists will retire in the next five years, which is just one example of the challenges we face The lack of workforce capacity must be addressed to change survival outcomes for pancreatic cancer patients. It would be good if the Minister were able to update us on what his Department is doing to prioritise workforce planning and to provide the funding needed, based on England’s cancer workforce plan Fast access to quick and accurate diagnostic tests is also crucial. Many pancreatic cancer patients are diagnosed too late, when surgery—the only curative option—is no longer available. The early diagnosis inquiry by the all-party parliamentary group on pancreatic cancer, "Time to Change the Story," heard anecdotal evidence from a healthcare professional that a CT scan can be done quite quickly but that the report can sometimes take 10 weeks. It would be helpful if the Department were able to respond to the recommendations of the all-party group’s report and to update us on the progress being made in that area The diagnosis of not only pancreatic cancer but other cancers, such as blood cancer, can be complex because symptoms such as back pain or tiredness are often misunderstood or misdiagnosed. Delays in blood cancer diagnosis can have a major impact on a patient’s quality of life and overall outcome, and earlier diagnosis would make a difference for many, but not all, blood cancers. To change this, recommendations for early diagnosis in the cancer strategy should be reviewed to ensure that all people with blood cancer are benefiting from early, accurate diagnosis. GPs could be encouraged to ask for a simple blood test for people displaying one or more blood cancer symptoms Diagnostic techniques also have the potential to guide what treatment options are likely to be effective. Last month, NICE provisionally rejected the use of five tumour profiling tests to guide treatment decisions on whether patients with a particular type of early breast cancer should also receive chemotherapy following surgery, reversing its previous guidance recommending Oncotype DX as an option. This goes to the heart of the point made by the hon. Member for Mid Norfolk (George Freeman) about using genomics effectively and precisely. Breast Cancer Now is concerned that this could be a backwards step for some breast cancer patients, especially in the context of the current cancer strategy’s welcome ambition to enable more personalised treatment.