My View: Pancreatic Cancer UK's Parliamentary Reception

Thank you sincerely to everyone who invited me along to the launch of Pancreatic Cancer UK’s ‘Driving Treatment Breakthroughs’ event in June, and for advocating for those who face such difficult situations. 

Back in February, our Government launched the National Cancer Plan – outlining how, for the first time, the NHS will commit to ensuring three in four people diagnosed with cancer from 2035 onwards are cancer-free or living well after five years.

I am pleased that the National Cancer Plan addresses early diagnosis as a key theme, including the commitment to significantly reduce emergency diagnoses of rare and less survivable cancers, such as pancreatic cancer.

While I am proud that, under this Labour Government, early diagnosis rates for cancer are at a record high, I absolutely recognise there is still much work to be done. Despite vital signs of recovery in the NHS, too many people living with cancer are still receiving unacceptable care, experiencing long waiting times and sometimes even having their cancer missed. Cancer waiting time standards have not been met since 2014, and survival rates for certain cancers in the UK remain lower than countries such as Poland and Romania. This is precisely why we need to do better, particularly for pancreatic cancer, where treatment options are often limited and outcomes poor, making early diagnosis vital.

The National Cancer Plan outlines an ambitious target to improve cancer survival by 2035 and to ensure that all national cancer waiting time standards are met by the end of this Parliament. Central to this ambition is the commitment to diagnose more cancers earlier, when treatment is most effective. This will result in the biggest improvement to cancer outcomes in a generation.

I welcome that the plan will be supported by £2.3 billion of investment to deliver 9.5 million additional diagnostic tests by 2029. It will also develop and deliver more proactive approaches to identifying people at risk of cancer, including through symptomatic case finding, additional support for GPs, and genomic testing.

I am really encouraged by the existing pilot for pancreatic cancer, announced in June 2025 and backed by targeted funding, which is already supporting primary care teams to proactively review patient records to identify people with symptoms that may indicate pancreatic cancer, helping them to be referred sooner. This targeted approach to identifying people at risk of one of the most lethal cancers has the potential to give more people a fighting chance and spare the heartbreak of countless families. 

That’s why I welcome the £146 million partnership our Government has secured with pharmaceutical companies and universities to harness science and innovation to detect and treat cancer sooner through trials for new technologies, including those using AI. I am particularly pleased to see that two of these trials are developing technology for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, and I’m really looking forward to see how technology continues to develop to support those who need it most.