Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on cancer patients of the delisting of treatments from the Cancer Drugs Fund; and if he will make a statement.
The review of the cancer drug fund national list ensures that more patients will be able to access drugs that provide better outcomes for their cancers. The reappraisal of drugs has meant that some patients who would have received the de-listed drugs would switch to alternative cancer drug fund drugs and the remainder would be offered conventional treatments.
NHS England approved the principles, tested out through consultation in October 2014, that the National Cancer Drugs fund (CDF) panel review the drugs currently on the list, assessing clinical benefit in relation to drug cost as part of that assessment for the first time. The review took place in December 2014 and has ensured that only those drugs demonstrating a suitable degree of clinical benefit, at appropriate costs, remain on the list. The CDF panel comprises expert clinicians working with cancer patients and treatments every day.