Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the NHS England news releases of 5 September and 5 October, when he plans to make CAR-T cell therapy available to (a) people aged under 25 with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and (b) adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma after two or more previous therapies have failed.

NHS England is working with the manufacturers and National Health Service providers to prepare the NHS to begin delivering Chimeric Antigen Receptor T Cell (CAR-T) therapy - the first in a wave of treatments in a new era of personalised medicine and part of the NHS’s long-term plan to upgrade cancer service. The first treatment that will be available to patient is tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah) as an option for treating children and young people up to 25 years old with B cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia that is refractory, in relapsed post-transplant or in second or later relapse.

NHS England anticipates that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence will recommend this treatment for entry into the Cancer Drugs Fund in mid-November. If so, funding will be made immediately available, following a successful commercial deal with the manufacturer Novartis. We anticipate the first patients will begin their treatment in late November 2018. The phased implementation required by the manufacturer and the NHS means that full capacity to treat eligible patients will take some months to achieve and a National CAR-T Clinical Panel will convene in mid-November to assure equity of access and prioritise eligible patients.