Alzheimer’s Disease: Diagnosis and Access to Experimental Drugs
Debate between Lord Patel and Baroness Blake of Leeds
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I was reading an article about this very subject just this morning, and it is fascinating. I do not think we really know the half of what the impact of these drugs is going to be on the wider health of people. So yes, we need to keep a very close eye on it for unexpected consequences and, hopefully, in this case, unexpected benefits.
Lord Patel (CB)
I suggest that the Minister looks again at the evidence produced recently by Novo Nordisk, the manufacturer of Wegovy drugs for obesity reduction, to see whether what was just said still applies in the new study.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
I am very willing to take the noble Lord’s advice, and I will seek out a copy as soon as I can after this session.
Prostate Cancer Screening
Debate between Lord Patel and Baroness Blake of Leeds
Lord Patel (CB)
My Lords, coming back to the Question from the noble Baroness, Lady Royall of Blaisdon, it is disappointing that the screening committee did not approve of screening for people with a strong family history, particularly of breast cancer, which the Minister mentioned, as BRCA genes are also associated with prostate cancer. So the screening committee might be asked to look at the evidence of family linkage to see whether that should not be included in “high risk”. By the way, coming to a better test than PSA, there is the promise of a saliva test with a higher specificity developed by Marsden cancer research institute. That is going to trial, and it may help.
Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)
The noble Lord is my go-to person for additional information in this area, and his knowledge is helpful in this debate. My understanding—he will obviously correct me afterwards if I am wrong—is that there is a much more defined relationship, in the research that has been done into breast cancer, in the likelihood of familial pass-on. That is exactly what this research has been set up to do: to look at whether there are the same patterns with prostate cancer, which have not yet been identified.