Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department plans to take steps to support the development of NICE guidelines and a quality standard for kidney cancer.

There are no current plans for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) to develop a guideline or quality standard on kidney cancer. However, NICE has recommended a number of medicines for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma through its technology appraisal programme, which are now routinely available to National Health Service patients. NICE has also has made recommendations on the referral of people patients with possible symptoms of renal cancer for further investigation in its guideline on suspected cancer. Where a NICE guideline or quality standard does not exist, clinicians should take into account other sources of clinical guidance.