Rare Cancers: Medical Treatments
(asked on 9th October 2026) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making trastuzumab deruxtecan (Enhertu) available on the NHS to patients with strongly HER2-positive rare cancers, including metastatic salivary gland cancers, where clinicians consider that the treatment could provide significant clinical benefit; and what steps she is taking to ensure that patients with rare cancers have adequate access to targeted treatments, irrespective of the site of origin of their cancer.
The Government recognises how important it is that people with rare diseases, including rare cancers, are able to benefit from access to effective new medicines.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent, national body that makes recommendations for the National Health Service on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the NHS based on the evidence of their costs and benefits. NICE evaluates all new licensed medicines and if trastuzumab deruxtecan is granted a marketing authorisation for use in the treatment of any rare cancer it would be evaluated by NICE for that indication.
The most up-to-date information on topics that are being developed by NICE is available through the NICE website at the following link: