Breast cancer campaigners have urged David Cameron to follow through on his word at Prime Minister's Questions and help patients escape a "vicious cycle of second rate care".
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn raised questions at the weekly contest about the collection and processing of data relating to secondary breast cancer following a meeting with campaigners at party conference in Brighton.
He told MPs Mr Cameron had similar meetings five years ago but that data was still not being effectively handled.
The Prime Minister said he had his own meeting at Tory conference in Manchester and passed details of his conversation to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt - adding tackling secondary breast cancer was "crucial for our country".
Following the exchanges Danni Manzi, head of policy and campaigns at Breast Cancer Care (BCC), said the charity was "delighted" the issue had been placed "firmly on the agenda".
She said: "The support available for women and men living with incurable breast cancer is often inadequate. Yet the data, which provides the key to better care, is not being consistently collected.
"Five years after meeting with David Cameron about the issue we still don't have the full picture of how many people are diagnosed each year or are living with the disease.
"Without this, patients will continue to be trapped in a vicious cycle of second rate care as it is near impossible to plan effective services. This cannot continue.
"We are calling on the Government to urgently make the system robust, to champion it at the highest level and deliver its promise to these patients."
Mr Corbyn told MPs he had met with BCC campaigners Frances and Emma, and in his question to Mr Cameron added: "Apparently you met their organisation in 2010 and they raised with you a very serious problem on the collection of data in all hospitals of this country about the incidence of secondary breast cancer, the treatment of it and the success or otherwise rates of the treatment that goes on.
"Apparently this information is not being collected as efficiently as it might be, it is not being centralised sufficiently as I understand it.
"I would be grateful if you would follow up on the promise you made to these women in 2010 that this data is going to be collected, is going to be centralised, so that we can ensure every woman who is going through the trauma of not just breast cancer but secondary breast cancer knowing it is terminal but knowing there may be some treatment that can alleviate the pain and possibly extend their lives."
Mr Cameron said he had a similar meeting, and added: "We all know people who had the tragedy of having breast cancer and one can only imagine what it must be like to recover and survive breast cancer in a primary sense but then to find out you have a secondary cancer, often a secondary cancer that is completely incurable.
"What the campaigners are asking for is better information, not least because they want to make sure we are spreading the best practice in every hospital so we really do treat people as quickly as we possibly can.
"I had a conversation with them, I relayed that to the Health Secretary, I am very happy to write to you about it, but making sure people get the right diagnosis, they get it quickly and then we use the information to tackle secondary breast cancer is absolutely crucial for our country."
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