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Cancer: Gastrointestinal System

Volume 471: debated on Monday 4 February 2008

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting times from referral to treatment were for upper and lower gastrointestinal cancers, broken down by condition, in the latest period for which figures are available. (178037)

Statistics on average waiting times for cancer patients and average waiting times for specific cancer conditions are not collected centrally. The cancer waiting time standard of a maximum wait of 62 days from urgent referral for suspected cancer to first cancer treatment was introduced for all cancer patients from December 2005. In the last quarter for which figures are available (July to September 2007) performance against this standard was 97.2 per cent.