Thank you for contacting me about pancreatic cancer.
Every effort is being made to improve early diagnosis and to drive up survival rates for pancreatic cancer.
I fully agree that more must be done to reduce the survival gap between pancreatic cancer and other cancers. The development of the 10 Year Cancer Plan provides an important opportunity to focus on improving outcomes for less survivable cancers such as pancreatic cancer. Key priorities in the Plan will include supporting earlier diagnosis of cancer and increasing survival rates to match the best in Europe.
The input of patient groups like Pancreatic Cancer UK will be invaluable to help develop the 10 Year Cancer Plan by highlighting the lived experience of people with pancreatic cancer. I understand that the Plan will be published later this Summer and that the Government is currently reviewing these responses to the recent call for evidence.
Research into less survivable cancers such as pancreatic cancer is also important to improving outcomes. The UK Government invests £1 billion per year in health and care research through the NIHR. I also recognise the indispensable contribution made by charities in driving forward research into cancer, with Cancer Research UK alone spending £17 million on pancreatic cancer over the last financial year.