The Government is “looking carefully” at introducing routine screening for prostate cancer as developments in technology are making diagnosis more effective, a health minister has said.
Andrew Gwynne also pledged to “make the United Kingdom a world leader in cancer survival” and urged women to become familiar with the symptoms of ovarian cancer, telling MPs about his mother’s late diagnosis of the disease.
The Government has issued a call for evidence to experts, patients and medics to help shape the blueprint of the national cancer plan.
Lord Darzi’s recent independent investigation into the NHS found the UK has appreciably higher cancer mortality rates than other countries and that no progress whatsoever was made in diagnosing cancer at stage I and II between 2013 and 2021.
In a statement to the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Gwynne said current guidance does not include regular screening for prostate cancer because the antigen test is not accurate enough.
However, more research has been sent to the National Institute of Health Research which may see the policy change.
He said: “This is something I am looking very carefully at, and I know that further information has gone to the National Institute of Health Research so that they can come to maybe another conclusion.
“Obviously, as technology and other mechanisms advance, this may well be an area where we can make in-roads.”
He had been asked about routine testing being brought in by Conservative backbencher Martin Vickers (Brigg and Immingham), who said: “Could I turn to prostate cancer? He will be aware that a routine screening programme would save many lives.”
Mr Gwynne said it was important women are taken seriously by their doctors, after he said his mother was “fobbed off” by her GP.
The health minister was asked by Labour MP Sharon Hodgson (Washington and Gateshead South) what the Government was doing to raise awareness of the symptoms.
He replied: “I lost my mum to ovarian cancer. I was 19 when my mum died, she was only 50 – my age today.
“She was a late diagnosis, they basically opened her up to perform a hysterectomy, it had spread all the way through her body, they sewed her back up and she died at the end of a hospital ward two days later in pain and agony.
“Having awareness of those symptoms is so important.
“My mum was fobbed off by her GP because she worked in a shop, she lifted boxes, so she had a bad back, she was bloated and so on and he said it was down to her work rather than erring on the side of caution and getting her checked out.
“We need to make sure women today are heard by their GPs but more importantly we err on the side of caution and we get people on treatment.”
Scott Arthur, Labour MP for Edinburgh South West, has tabled a Private Member’s Bill that would incentivise research and investment into the treatment of rare types of cancer.
He told MPs: “Yesterday, I met with the Brain Tumour Charity, Brain Tumour Research and Pancreatic Cancer UK, and we did, in part, discuss the national cancer plan.
“I don’t speak on these charities’ behalf, but one of the conclusions I drew from the discussion was there’s a real need to have the voices of rare cancer patients and survivors at the heart of this consultation. So does the minister agree with that point?”
Mr Gwynne said Mr Arthur’s Bill is “crucially important” and those “with lived experience” of cancer “absolutely have to be at the heart of what we’re doing”.
Shadow health minister Dr Caroline Johnson, who worked as a consultant paediatrician in the NHS, welcomed the announcement of the new breast cancer screening trial, but said “the statement as a whole is rather disappointing”.
She added: “The minister has told us this is a cancer plan, but it isn’t. It’s a statement that there is to be one. Saying you want cancer survival rates to increase, saying you’re going to have a plan doesn’t make it so: you need the plan itself.”
Dr Johnson also suggested the Government has abandoned “the target of ensuring that patients receive treatment within a maximum 62 days from an urgent referral of suspected cancer”, adding: “Can the minister clarify his commitment to the 62-day target?”
Mr Gwynne said the Government has “strengthened targets”, and added: “I hope the shadow minister isn’t suggesting that we should just pull a plan out of thin air, without any consultation with the sector, with patients, with anybody with any interest in cancer.”
