Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the accuracy of the classification of stage 4 breast cancer as moderate in severity.

Neither the Department for Health and Social Care nor the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have classified stage 4 breast cancer as moderate in severity.

In developing guidance on whether new medicines can be recommended for routine use in the treatment of NHS patients, NICE is able to apply a weighting that recognises the additional value that society places on treatments for severe conditions. The weighting that is applied is calculated for each appraisal based on information on the expected shortfall in life expectancy and quality of life of people with the condition, taking into account existing treatment options. NICE has concluded for several appraisals of medicines for late-stage breast cancer that a weighting should be applied based on the severity of the condition.