Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the national cancer plan will include policies on equitable access to companion diagnostics for all (a) regions and (b) patient groups.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, as well as speeding up diagnosis and treatment, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology, and ultimately bringing this country’s cancer survival rates back up to the standards of the best in the world.

The plan will look at how we can maximise our impact through the most up-to-date technology and innovations. It will ensure that we continue to maximise the access to, and the impact of, clinical trials in diagnostics and treatments, building on the success of projects such as the NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad. The plan will also consider mechanisms to accelerate the adoption of innovative diagnostics and treatments into the National Health Service, and will seek to ensure that high quality care is available to patients across the country.

Furthermore, reducing barriers of entry to care and improving the efficiency of patient pathways are essential to improving cancer outcomes and experiences. The plan will explore how we can improve data collection, sharing, and analysis, to help identify variation and blockages in the pathway and develop solutions with the NHS.