§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the connection between heartburn and cancer of the gullet. [127450]
§ Dr. LadymanCancer of the oesophagus affects around 6,000 people a year in England and Wales, the majority of whom are aged 40 or over. Common symptoms of the cancer are heartburn and difficulty in swallowing. Most people also lose weight and about half have anaemia, which causes severe tiredness.
Cancer of the oesophagus or gullet develops as a result of cell changes in the lining of the oesophagus. There are two main types of cancer of the oesophagus: squamous carcinoma, which is more common at the upper end of the gullet; and adenocarcinoma, which is more common at the lower end, particularly around the 620W junction between the gullet and the stomach. There has been a recent increase in the proportion of tumours arising close to the junction of stomach and gullet, but the reasons for this are not yet known.
We know that cancer patients need to be diagnosed and treated as quickly as possible. This is a very stressful and anxious time for them and they want a diagnosis of their condition as quickly as possible. The Government launched the NHS Cancer Plan on 27 September 2000. This sets out the first ever comprehensive strategy to tackle the disease. It is a major programme of action linking prevention, diagnosis, treatment, care and research.
The Cancer Plan sets out new waiting time targets for cancer treatment. A two-week out-patient waiting time standard was introduced for all urgently referred suspected cancer patients in December 2000 and the most recent figures show that over 98 per cent. of all urgent referrals were seen with two weeks.
By 2005, all cancer patients will wait a maximum of one month from diagnosis to treatment and a maximum of two months from urgent general practitioner referral to treatment. The Government's ultimate goal is that no patient should wait longer than one month from an urgent referral for suspected cancer to the beginning of treatment, except for a good clinical reason or through personal choice. It is planned to achieve this by 2008.
However, past decades of under investment mean this goal is not yet within reach. We are making significant extra investment—an extra £570 million a year by 2003–04—the biggest ever single cash investment in cancer equipment, additional doctors and nurses working in new ways and modernisation through the Cancer Services Collaborative, which aims to cut out delays in the patient journey.