Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to help improve access to life-extending (a) treatments and (b) medicines for patients with incurable secondary breast cancer in Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

The Department remains committed to reducing waiting times for cancer treatment and to improving access to treatment across England, including for patients with incurable secondary breast cancer in the Mid Bedfordshire constituency.

We have now exceeded our pledge to deliver an extra two million operations, scans, and appointments, having now delivered over four million more appointments as the first step to ensuring earlier and faster access to treatment.

In May 2025, NHS England announced the world’s first roll out of liquid biopsy testing, which is now available for all eligible breast cancer patients, and which aims to speed up diagnosis and inform better treatment options for those with breast cancer.

The National Cancer Plan for England will be published later this year and will set out further details on how we will improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including those with secondary breast cancer. The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare.