Brain Tumours: Causes and Treatment

Lord Scriven Excerpts

Monday 24th November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I take the point the noble Lord makes, and I am sorry to hear of his son’s—and of course his family’s—experience. One of the things we are working on is increasing public awareness of brain cancer research opportunities. That is not quite the same as the point the noble Lord made, but extending that through the NIHR’s “Be Part of Research” initiative is important. The national cancer plan will give us the opportunity to review what communications and campaigns we run with the public. That will be a good opportunity to consider the point he makes.

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, Georgie’s brother is Charlie Maynard MP, who has been campaigning on this. One of the issues raised is that in the UK it takes significantly longer to open a clinical trial for these patients than in most comparable nations, due to the excessive administrative burden. Will the Government therefore commit to looking at a fast-track designation for trials involving cancers with unmet needs, such as glioblastoma?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We certainly do need to cut more red tape on cancer treatments. For example, we recently accelerated patient access to ultrasound cancer treatment through our innovative devices access pathway pilot. That is just one way in which we will have the potential to help companies, which is crucial to bring game-changing cancer treatments to fruition and to NHS patients even faster.