Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with NHS England on recognising incremental innovation in pancreatic cancer treatment when assessing medicines for inclusion on the Cancer Drugs Fund.

Decisions on the drugs made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund are a matter for NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund panel. We have had no discussions. The standard operating procedures for the Fund, which outline the decision-making process the panel follows is available at:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/

Such decisions are made by an expert panel of clinicians which also includes patient representation. Additionally the panel will use its expert judgement in making final decisions and will be aware of specific issues relating to current treatment options for a given disease area.