Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cancer treatments have been (a) denied entry to or (b) removed from the Cancer Drugs Fund on cost grounds since January 2015.

NHS England has advised that no cancer treatments have been removed from or denied entry to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) on cost grounds alone. NHS England’s CDF panel makes its prioritisation decisions based on the national CDF prioritisation tool.

Since 1 January 2015, 14 drugs and indications have been denied entry to the Fund and 25 drugs have been removed from the Fund. However, four of these removals followed a positive recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence which saw those drugs being routinely commissioned by the National Health Service.

Two drugs have been added for three indications - panitumumab for bowel cancer, ibrutinib for Mantle cell lymphoma and ibrutinib for use in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.