Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of minimally invasive therapies for the less survivable cancers.

Ongoing research is exploring the potential of minimally invasive cancer therapies for less survivable cancers. This includes non-invasive liver cancer treatments that use ultrasound technology to destroy tumours without surgery, scalpels, or radiation, with minimal damage to surrounding organs.

The adoption of new treatments, including minimally invasive cancer treatments for less survivable cancers, into the National Health Service in England is generally the result of National Institution of Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidance and/or commissioner decisions.

The NHS has launched a new £2 million programme which is funding 300 general practices to identify pancreatic cancer early by screening high-risk patients over 60 years old with new diabetes diagnoses and unexplained weight loss for urgent testing.

Both NHS England and the integrated care boards are required to put in place access for any treatment that carries a positive recommendation from the Technology Appraisal programme, operated by NICE. Agreements on timelines and funding for making therapies available on the NHS can vary, with implementation supported by the service readiness assessment and the development of additional capacity where necessary.