Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to increase early diagnosis of invasive lobular carcinoma.

The Department is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so that more patients, including those with lobular carcinoma, survive this horrible set of diseases. To achieve this, the NHS has delivered an extra 40,000 operations, scans, and appointments each week as the first step to ensuring early diagnosis and faster treatment.

There are multiple NHS initiatives and funding streams across the NHS in England that support the early detection of breast cancer, and many organisations across the health service are involved.

The Department spends £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), with cancer as the largest area of spend at more than £133 million in 2023/24. The NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group, reflecting its high priority. These investments in cancer, including lobular breast cancer, are pivotal to informing efforts to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and outcomes.

The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on improving outcomes for cancer patients, including those with invasive lobular carcinoma, and will highlight how the Department will support the NHS to improve diagnosis rates for people in all parts of England.