Breast Cancer
(asked on 20th June 2025) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to (a) increase awareness of, (b) improve screening for and (c) develop research into lobular breast cancer; and what recent discussions his Department has had with NHS England on the (i) prevalence and (ii) detectability of this type of breast cancer.
Improving the early diagnosis of cancer, including lobular breast cancer, is a priority for NHS England. The National Health Service will improve cancer survival rates and hit all NHS cancer waiting time targets, so that no patient waits longer than they should.
To increase awareness of lobular breast cancer, NHS England and other NHS organisations, nationally and locally, publish information on the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. Further information can be found on the NHS.UK website, which is available at the following link:
The NHS Breast Screening Programme offers all women in England between the ages of 50 and 71 years old the opportunity to be screened every three years for breast cancer, to help detect abnormalities and intervene early to reduce the number of lives lost to breast cancer. However, lobular breast cancer is difficult to detect using imaging scans, such as mammogram.
The Department invests £1.5 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24 reflecting its high priority.
The Department has invested £29 million into the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden NIHR Biological Research Centre in 2022, supporting their efforts to strengthen research into cancer, including lobular breast cancer. Wider investments into breast cancer research include a £1.3 million project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening through mammography, including lobular breast cancer.
The Department continues to work closely with NHS England on the development of the National Cancer Plan to achieve the overall goal of fewer lives lost to cancer, including to lobular breast cancer. The plan will be published later this year.