20 February 2008
We received a petition asking:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Help fund research into Pancreatic Cancer."
Details of Petition:
"Pancreatic cancer is one of if not the worst Cancer and is not cureable and the statistics show a survival rate of less than 5%. Most of the time it is too late once diagnosed, so researchers need funding to find out how and why this Cancer is appearing. It has taken so many people lately including a member of my family and it is a horrible thing to go through. Please help to get funding by signing this petition."
Read the Government’s response
Improving services for people with cancer, and suspected cancer, is a key priority for this Government. We are delivering better treatment to more people than ever before and thousands of people are alive and well who would not be without these improvements.
The amount of research funding the Government can give to individual cancers depends on a number of factors, including the quality of the research proposal and the potential health benefit to the public. We have established the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) to ensure that there is sufficient high level strategic planning and co-ordination between the different funding partners of cancer research, including the Government, charities and the private sector.
The NCRI has set up the Upper Gastrointestinal Clinical Studies Group, which proposes, designs and oversees national trials on pancreatic, oesophageal, stomach and bile duct cancers. This group includes representatives from charities, patients, and carers, ensuring that their needs and viewpoints are taken into account when trials are designed. There are currently five trials concentrating on treatment being conducted under this arrangement, and a further two are in the process of being set up.
It is important to note that the majority of cancer research is not specific to one particular cancer type and that research classified as undertaken in one specific cancer type can have implications for another cancer type.
On 3 December 2007, we published the Cancer Reform Strategy, which sets a clear direction for the development of cancer services in England over the next five years. It contains a wide range of measures to tackle cancer and improve patient care, and it will transform existing cancer care from prevention and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare. Key elements of the strategy include focus on prevention, faster treatment, extended screening, fast-track drug approval and extended services for the increasing numbers of people surviving cancer. The strategy can be viewed on the Department’s website at: www.dh.gov.uk.
Pancreatic cancer can be cured. It is important to detect cancer as early as possible because the earlier that cancer is detected, the less invasive the treatment and the higher the chance of the patient’s survival. We are aware that improving access to diagnostics is the single most important priority in primary care to improve the early diagnosis of cancer. Chapter 7 of the strategy focuses on delivering care for people with cancer in the most appropriate settings and sets out some of the changes to cancer service models that commissioners should consider, including increasing access to diagnostics.
The NHS Cancer Plan, published in 2000, set out new waiting time standards for cancer treatment. A two week out patient waiting time standard was introduced for all urgently referred suspected cancer patients in December 2000. From December 2005, all patients with cancer should wait a maximum of one month from diagnosis to treatment and a maximum of two months from urgent GP referral to the start of treatment. Where patients are referred between hospitals or to specialist centres, and where decisions have to be made about the most appropriate form of treatment, this all should be done within the one or two month cancer waiting times targets, as appropriate.
Latest figures show that in the second quarter of 2007/08 (July - September 2007), 99.9 per cent of people with suspected upper gastro-intestinal cancer, including pancreatic cancer, were seen by a specialist within two weeks of urgent referral by their GP.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has produced guidance to assist GPs in determining those patients who may have cancer and so need to be seen urgently by a specialist. This guidance includes upper gastro-intestinal cancers.
In 2001, the Department of Health published Improving Outcomes in Upper Gastro-intestinal Cancers. This guidance set out recommendations on how services for patients with upper gastro-intestinal cancers should be organised in order to ensure the best outcomes. Strategic Health Authorities have been asked to submit action plans to demonstrate how they will implement this guidance. The Department of Health and the Healthcare Commission are monitoring progress against the plans.
The guidance has been translated into a series of measures for inclusion in the Manual of Cancer Services. The manual supports quality assurance of cancer services and enables quality improvement. It is aimed at all commissioners and providers of NHS cancer services in order for progress against the measures to be considered by a process of self-assessment and peer review.