Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will take steps to increase the length of time that data is collected on the evaluation of treatment funded by the Cancer Drugs Fund.

NHS England has advised that cancer drugs that are assessed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as having both key clinical uncertainties and plausible cost effectiveness can enter the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) for evaluation with a view to future NICE re-appraisal once there is sufficient data from continuing clinical trials and/or data collection in the CDF.

The duration in the CDF for a cancer drug is determined on an individual basis by the time required for such data development/collection to take place. This will depend on the disease concerned, the data that needs to be examined, the clinical trials that may be already running, and considerations of cancer treatment pathways in England. The time that a drug stays in the CDF is therefore individually assessed and agreed with NHS England, NICE and the company concerned.