Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to ensure that off-patent bisphosphonate drugs are made routinely available for the new indication of preventing breast cancer spreading to the bone.

Research led by the University of Sheffield on the effects of bisphosphonate treatment on recurrence and cause-specific mortality in women with early breast cancer was presented in 2013. We understand that NHS England’s Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group plans to incorporate this research into guidance it will be publishing in 2015.