Cancer Priorities

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 13th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Salisbury (John Glen). On behalf of the Backbench Business Committee, I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay (Mr Baron) not only for securing this important debate, but for agreeing to host it on such a difficult day—the last day of term before we break up for the recess.

I speak as someone who has a personal, family experience of cancer and I speak on behalf of my constituents. As I have said in the House before, both my parents died of cancer, as did three of my immediate family—uncles and aunts. They died many years ago, when the treatments now available were not available. Had they been, there is no doubt that they would have survived far longer. The good news is that progress has been made over many years in cancer treatment.

Most of this debate focuses on health matters, but I want to flag up an issue that can also affect people who suffer from cancer. A constituent came to see me. He had worked all his life, for 40 years, in a particular industry, doing quite heavy work. He was suddenly diagnosed with life-threatening cancer. He went to the jobcentre to get benefit while he received treatment. He was denied any benefit, for the simple reason that his doctor’s letter stated that his treatment was likely to last six months. He was therefore disqualified from receiving benefits. He was down to his last few hundred pounds to sustain his family. Fortunately, I was able to intervene and it was found that his treatment would last a minimum of six months, and more likely a year or longer, so he would be out of work for that period. Unfortunately, in many respects the way benefits are dealt with is not helpful to cancer sufferers. I do not expect the Minister to respond to that point today, but it is something we should flag up for Ministers in the Department for Work and Pensions.

I also speak from another perspective. When I was a local councillor, St Luke’s hospice in north-west London was founded in my ward. It has gone from strength to strength. It started out as an outreach service for people suffering from life-threatening diseases or who were at the end of their life; it helped them at home. It has now moved to its own headquarters, which is also a headquarters for Macmillan nurses. It treats many thousands of cancer sufferers across north-west London in an excellent way. St Mark’s hospital, which is world-renowned in the treatment of bowel-related diseases, particularly cancer, is also in my constituency.

As some Members may know, over the past year, I have been under the care of St Mark’s hospital following medical treatment, and I have personally witnessed the terrible distress that individuals go through when they are told that unfortunately they are suffering from some form of cancer. It is not until you see those people and see the terrible effect not only on them, but on their relatives and friends, that it really comes home to you what a terrible thing this disease is and how important it is that we continue to treat people in an appropriate and sympathetic manner. However, the good news is that just because someone has been diagnosed with cancer, that does not mean it is the end. There is treatment available and the capability of a full recovery, but often people do not realise that until they are thus affected.

Of course, as we all live longer and live healthier lives, there is a greater risk of suffering from cancer. As my hon. Friend the Member for Basildon and Billericay said, within six years, one in every two people will be diagnosed with some form of cancer. That means that every family in the country will experience the terrible problem of having a relative diagnosed with cancer and the impact that that has on the whole family. We need to understand that this will not go away but get worse as a potential problem.

I congratulate the Government on the introduction of the cancer drugs fund, which categorises money and makes it available for treatment of cancer-related diseases. The sad fact is, however, that it is time-limited; it will end in 2016. Concerns are being raised—they are raised very strongly in the report by the all-party group—about what will replace it and what the impact will be on funding for treatment of the various diseases.

There is another big challenge in relation to the clinical treatment of cancers: quality of life issues versus the age of the patient and their ability to recover from the treatment—whether the treatment will actually kill the patient is a concern. More importantly, such issues are balanced against the cost of the treatment to be provided. If a patient is going to have their life prolonged by a week, the clinician can be asked whether it is worth the huge amount of money that may be invested in doing so. However, if they will be given another five years, there is no question about what should be provided. Then the challenge is what to do in between those time frames. That is a direct challenge to our clinicians and to all those making decisions about funding the cost of treatment and the provision that we make for it.

During this debate, we have talked about early diagnosis. There is no question but that if people are diagnosed early, their treatment is less severe and the chances of recovery are far greater. Women, in particular, have had strong advice over many years to check themselves for breast cancer. Smears have been available, as have other forms of treatment and checks. Men often do not want to talk about the fact that they may be suffering from early signs of cancer. They do not go to doctors early enough. They do not consider themselves to need treatment, and of course, by the end, it may be too late for that treatment to take place.

A system of screening across the country for the most common forms of cancer needs to be available for every single patient on the NHS. However, there must be a word of warning—after screening, the patient may be shown not to be suffering from a form of cancer at the moment, but that does not mean that they will not suffer from it next week, next month or thereafter. The risk is that people may feel that they are safe as a result of screening, but they are not. Therefore, screening must take place regularly so that people can understand that early treatment can get them into a good position.

There is also the aspect of specialist treatment that must be available. There are a number of rare cancer diseases where the cost of treatment is quite high but the number of cases is relatively few. We should therefore ensure that the people who suffer from those rare forms of cancer have a good chance of recovery through proper treatment, proper drugs, and proper specialist care.

I want to highlight in particular the work being done at University College hospital on blood cancers. One of the problems is that, while treatment kills many cancer cells, it leaves behind small numbers that are very difficult to detect and that at some future stage may spring back into action and infect the whole body via the blood. University College hospital depends on donations from members of the public for the equipment it uses. In my view, there should be far greater investment from the NHS in that research, which enables experts to make diagnoses and produce the detailed treatment needed by those suffering from blood cancer in particular.

Another issue is the drug companies that produce the drugs that treat cancers, be they common or rare. It is clear that the cost of research is enormous, that the failure rate of the drugs is difficult to determine and that there is a challenge—this is particularly true of rare cancers—with regard to the number of patients who can be treated. Will the Minister consider an open-book policy for the drug companies whereby they would say, “We’ve spent this much money on research and this is how much it has cost us to develop these drugs, so this is how much we need to recover from treatment using these drugs”? At the moment, there seems to be a battle between the drug companies, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the NHS with regard to the cost of treatment. It is clear that that needs to be addressed.

It would be remiss of me, during a debate on cancer, not to say that individuals also have a responsibility. If we can educate young people to have a better diet and not to start smoking in the first place, and if we can educate people who do smoke to give up, we have a chance of reducing the risks of contracting cancer. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Minister, who has been a Health Minister for only a short period, on the major change earlier this week to the Government’s policy on smoking in cars when children are present and on the issue of standardised packaging of tobacco products. She has made a huge impact.

We have not completed the job yet and we look forward to the regulations being introduced, but now we have another challenge, which is the treatment of cancers through the use of various drugs that assist people who suffer from those terrible diseases. It is a new challenge and a new opportunity, and I am sure that the Minister will take it up with gusto and zeal and that she will achieve the same degree of success as she has in relation to smoking.