Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has taken recent steps to (a) increase the availability of and (b) support the rollout of new immunotherapy treatments for bowel cancer.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body responsible for developing evidence-based recommendations for the National Health Service in England on whether medicines represent a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources. NICE appraises all newly licensed medicines within their licensed indications and the NHS in England is legally required to fund medicines recommended by NICE. Cancer medicines are eligible for funding from the Cancer Drugs Fund from the point of draft NICE guidance.

NICE has already recommended several immunotherapies for bowel cancer, which are now available for the treatment of eligible NHS patients in line with NICE’s recommendations. These include including panitumumab, pembrolizumab, and nivolumab with ipilimumab. NICE is also due to start its appraisal of nivolumab for previously treated metastatic colorectal cancer with high microsatellite instability or mismatch repair deficiency in March 2024.