Recommendation 9

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government welcomes the Committee’s recognition of the work that is already under way to deliver on the ambition to diagnose 75% of cancers by 2028. The NHS Cancer Programme is focused around six priorities to increase early diagnosis: • increase public knowledge of the signs and symptoms of cancer, and encourage them to act on them; • modernise our existing cancer screening programmes and maximise take up; • proactively screen or monitor people who are most at risk because of genetic or lifestyle factors; • improve the efficiency and effectiveness of how GPs refer people into the system, and create new routes in so that we spread the net more widely; • take advantage of our genomic testing capability and explore new technologies such as ‘liquid biopsy’ to identify more people with cancer proactively; and, • increase diagnostic capacity and streamline diagnostic pathways so that we give people a definitive diagnosis within 28 days. The NHS is broadening and accelerating its work on these priorities. In 2022/23, NHS with cancer charities, launching new initiatives in liver cancer, targeting high-risk groups for surveillance, and breast cancer, piloting expanded eligibility for BRCA testing for the relatively high-risk Ashkenazi Jewish population. The NHS is continuing to expand its work on bowel cancer, including the age extension of the bowel cancer screening programme to people over the age of 50 by 2024/25. Its first open call for innovations allocated £10m to innovations to support earlier and more efficient diagnosis, including the Pinpoint blood test and a new genetic test which can be used as a ‘liquid biopsy’ for those with suspected Pancreatic cancer. New routes into the system via community pharmacy and self-referral are being tested in primary care. Where the pandemic created challenges, the NHS has already got programmes back on track and is now moving towards further expansion. For example, all TLHC activity paused as a result of the pandemic, but the programme is now inviting over 30,000 eligible participants every month, compared to just 1,500 before the pandemic, and the programme will extend to 20 new areas in 2022-23. There are still six years to go until 2028 and the full impact of these interventions was always going to come through in the later years of the implementation period, as programmes like targeted lung health checks were rolled out fully. It is premature to suggest that progress is off track particularly when, as the Committee acknowledges, so much good work is underway. Access to Treatments