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 potential implications for his policies of the availability of research into less survivable cancers; and what steps his Department is taking to incentivise people to undertake research into this area.

The Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).

The Government is investing in new lifesaving and life-improving research to support those diagnosed with less survivable cancers. An example of this is the announcement of the NIHR’s new national Brain Tumour Research Consortium, which will bring together researchers from a range of different disciplines and institutions with the aim of making scientific advances in how we prevent, detect, manage and treat rarer but less-survivable cancers in adults and children.

The NIHR continue to welcome further high-quality proposals from researchers to inform approaches to prevention, treatment and care in relation to less survivable cancers.

Furthermore, the Department is committed to ensuring that all patients, including those with rare cancers, have access to cutting-edge clinical trials and innovative, lifesaving treatments. The forthcoming National Cancer Plan will include further details on how the National Health Service will improve diagnosis and outcomes for all cancer patients in England, including for rare and less common cancers.