Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government plans to take to improve coordination of research into (a) brain, (b) lung, (c) stomach, (d) oesophageal, (e) liver and (f) pancreatic cancers.

Together with NHS England and NHS Improvement and the National Cancer Research Institute, the Department joined the Less Survivable Cancers Taskforce recent research roundtable event to consider how the number of high-quality research applications can be increased for these difficult-to-treat cancers.

The Department convened an independent Task and Finish Working Group on Brain Tumour Research, chaired by Professor Chris Whitty, which reported in February 2018. Following this report the Department is participating actively in the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission. In May 2018 the Government announced £40 million over five years for brain tumour research.