Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support research into pancreatic cancer.

The Department invests over £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), and in 2024/25 spent £141.6 million on cancer research, signalling its high priority. This includes studies that focus specifically on pancreatic cancer as well as studies that are relevant to or include pancreatic cancer. For example, between the financial years 2020/21 to 2024/25, the NIHR committed £1.5 million to specific pancreatic cancer studies.

The NIHR has also invested £1.9 million in research to detect the early stages of gastrointestinal cancers, which includes pancreatic cancer, through a non-invasive breath test which will aim to streamline the referral process for primary care.

The NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure, for instance facilities, services, and the research workforce, supported the delivery of 160 pancreatic cancer research studies and enabled over 8,200 people to participate in potentially life-changing research during this time period. This includes support for the PemOla trial, which is the first to explore using precision immunotherapies to treat pancreatic cancer. Further information on the PemOla trial is available at the following link:

https://cambridgebrc.nihr.ac.uk/2025/07/18/pancreatic-cancer-precision-medicine-trial/

The NIHR continues to encourage and welcome high quality funding applications into pancreatic cancer.