Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, when clinical trials for pancreatic cancer will resume in England following their suspension as a result of the covid-19 outbreak.

In March 2020 the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic led the National Health Service to suspend many routine clinical services and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) to prepare to support the Government’s research response. Subsequently, decisions were taken by research sponsors, funders, investigators and study sites to pause some non-COVID-19 research, and by the NIHR Clinical Research Network to pause set up of new sites or studies, other than for nationally prioritised COVID-19 studies.

The NIHR published a Restart Framework in May 2020 and has established groups to oversee and coordinate the restart of non-COVID research. Restart of non-COVID-19 trials of life-preserving or life-extending treatments that are not otherwise available to patients remain a priority. The majority of cancer trials are open to recruitment.