Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to include astrocytoma brain cancer in the (a) National Cancer Plan, (b) Rare Cancers Bill and (c) NHS Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad.

The National Cancer Plan will take into account the needs of all patients with brain tumours. This means we will not be excluding any kinds of brain or spinal cord tumours and astrocytomas will be included as part of our work on brain tumours.

The Rare Cancers Bill as currently drafted is relevant to cancers that affect not more than 1 in 2000 people in the United Kingdom. Astrocytoma and low grade gliomas fit this definition and will therefore be relevant to the Bill.

The Cancer Vaccine Launch Pad (CVLP) is a platform that will speed up access to clinical trials for cancer vaccines and immunotherapies for patients who have been diagnosed with cancer. The platform is designed to be company and clinical trial agnostic so any company, including those developing vaccines for brain tumours, can contact the CVLP to explore how the platform can support their research.