Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of the treatment available to people with Leukaemia in (a) Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency and (b) Staffordshire.

We will get the NHS diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster so more patients survive, and we will improve patients’ experience across the system. This will benefit patients across the system, including in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire.

We have not made a specific assessment of leukaemia treatment in Staffordshire and Newcastle-under-Lyme. However, in September 2024, NHS England announced a new targeted treatment, Quizartinib, to be prescribed to newly diagnosed patients with a specific type of leukaemia, boosting their chance of remission and long-term survival. This was made available through NHS England’s Cancer Drugs Fund, which fast-tracks new innovative cancer treatments into standard care. This followed a previous announcement in August 2024, announcing the new treatment, Zanubrutini, for those with marginal zone lymphoma, which could halt the progression of their cancer and provide an alternative to further rounds of chemotherapy.

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 ongoing care- as well as prevention and research and innovation. It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care to better the experience and outcomes for people with cancer, including in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire.