Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress he has made in providing genomic testing for cancer patients who could benefit from treatment with histology independent therapies.

The first candidate histology independent therapy, larotrectinib, for treating advanced solid tumours with NTRK gene fusions has been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) through the Cancer Drugs Fund, and final appraisal documentation was published by NICE on 21 April 2020. In line with the publication of the final appraisal documentation, NHS England and NHS Improvement put in place genomic testing for NTRK gene fusions, delivered by the NHS Genomics Laboratory Hubs (GLHs). NHS England and NHS Improvement is continuing to work with the GLHs to ramp up the capacity of NTRK gene fusion testing.