Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NHS England plans to provide dendric cell therapy for glioma.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new licensed medicines, including medicines for glioma, to determine whether they represent a clinically and cost-effective use of resources. The NICE aims to publish guidance on new medicines as close as possible to licensing. Any medicine for glioma, recommended in draft NICE guidance, will be eligible for funding through the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point a positive draft guidance is published, in line with the standard arrangements for cancer medicines.

On 24 April 2024, the NICE published draft guidance recommending a new treatment for glioma in children and young people that will be available to eligible patients once supply of the treatment is available.

There are currently no licensed dendritic cell therapies for glioma. A number of dendritic cell therapies are in development for the treatment of glioma, and any new licensed and NICE recommended treatments would be funded by NHS England, in line with NICE’s recommendations.