Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of breast cancer patients who will be affected by the removal of (a) eribulin, (b) lapatinib, and (c) everolimus from the Cancer Drugs Fund list on 12 March 2015.

NHS England has advised that all patients currently being treated with eribulin, lapatinib or everolimus through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) will continue with their treatment. Furthermore, clinicians will continue to be able to apply for individual patients to receive these drugs on an exceptional basis.

Based on current applications received for these drugs, NHS England estimates that, on an annual basis, 1,730 patients treated with these drugs will be affected.

NHS England has also advised that there are alternatives available for all these drugs within either baseline commissioning or the CDF. The purpose of NHS England’s recent review is to ensure that the very latest drugs are available to patients. The CDF has already helped over 60,000 patients.