Cancer 52 Annual Stakeholder Meeting
On Tuesday 17th October, Pancreatic Cancer Action had the pleasure of attending the Seventh Annual Stakeholder meeting of Cancer 52, at the House of Lords.
52 per cent (recent statistics show an increase to 54%) of UK cancer deaths are from the less common cancers.
Cancer 52 is is an alliance of 90 organisations working to address the inequality of these cancers, and improve outcomes for patients with these highly challenging diseases.
A talk was held by the keynote speaker, Professor Chris Harrison, who is the National Clinical Director for Cancer NHS England. He explained the progress of the NHS cancer strategy with promising progress of early diagnosis, aiming for a 28 day faster diagnosis standard by 2020 which is increasingly becoming closer.
A rapid diagnostic and assessment model as well as early access to scans was also discussed. We found out that the NHS are working on a recovery package, which will assess and review a patient’s treatment to see how effective it was and there will be a quick re-entry process for suspected re-occurrence.
The National Cancer Transformation Programme Progress Report 2016-2017 was also mentioned as it was published yesterday which you can view here.
The key points of the Progress Report are:
- Highlights of the year
- Coordinating cancer care
- Preventing cancer
- Diagnosing cancer earlier and faster
- Ensuring the best treatment and care
- Improving long-term quality of life
- Developing expert cancer workforce
- Timeline of progress
- National Cancer Programme governance
Overall, the meeting was an excellent opportunity to get an insight into the NHS’ progress and to meet other organisations and charity’s that have the same issues as us and discuss how we can move forward together.