Leukaemia is particularly challenging to diagnose and treat. I fully sympathise with those affected by any form of blood cancer and recognise the profound impact of these diseases on individuals and their loved ones.
I am determined to support constituents in calling for an increase in positive outcomes for all cancer types, including blood cancers. It was one of the top priorities we had in government, and we continued to take steps to reduce waiting times for cancer diagnosis and treatment across England, including the time between an urgent general practice referral and the commencement of treatment for cancer for patients.
I recognise the challenge set by charities like Leukaemia UK to increase research into leukaemia and make innovative treatments like CAR-T Therapy more widely available. We need to drive improvements for those affected by leukaemia and it is important that the new Government continues work to implement the headline commitments of the O’Shaughnessy Review into commercial clinical trials. At the recent election, I stood on a manifesto that committed to reducing obstacles to the use of new treatments in the NHS like the NHS Budget Impact Test.
The NHS Long Term Plan established the goal of 75 per cent of people being diagnosed with cancer at an early stage by 2028. In the meantime, the last Government also created 160 new community diagnosis centres (CDCs), providing scans and cancer checks.
I fully recognise that delivering more research is key to understanding the causes of cancers and increasing survival rates of all cancers further. We invested almost £122 million into cancer research in 2022-23 via the National Institute for Health and Care Research. In addition, alongside Cancer Research UK, health departments across the United Kingdom are jointly funding a network of Experimental Cancer Medicine Centres, collectively investing more than £35 million between 2017 and 2022.
I fully acknowledge that there is more work to be done. Through improved diagnosis and early detection, novel treatments and research, I hope that patients with these conditions in the future have the best possible diagnosis, treatment, and care. I also welcome campaigns and opportunities to raise awareness to improve early diagnosis like the NHS England ‘Help Us Help You’ cancer awareness campaign, designed to increase earlier diagnosis of cancer by encouraging people to come forward with suspected signs of cancers.
The previous Conservative government worked jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the Covid-19 backlogs in elective care and created a plan to spend more than £8 billion from 2022-23 to 2024-25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
Please be assured that we continue to support our ambition of diagnosing 75 per cent of cancers at stage one and two by 2028. Achieving this will mean that an additional 55,000 people each year will survive their cancer for at least five years after diagnosis. With progress made on reducing waiting times, cancer is being diagnosed at an earlier stage more often, with survival rates improving across almost all types of cancer.
