Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to meet with the leadership of the Lobular Moon Shot Project to discuss funding.

The Department invests £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24 reflecting its high priority.

There are no current plans to meet with the leadership of the Lobular Moon Shot Project to discuss funding. Officials meet regularly with partners to discuss research investments and priorities.

We are proud to have invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.

NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including into lobular breast cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.