Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many new brain cancer treatments in each year since 2018 (1) entered a clinical trial in the United Kingdom, (2) obtained a United Kingdom marketing authorisation, (3) became routinely available on the NHS, and (4) were prescribed to NHS patients; what proportion of patients diagnosed with brain cancer were recruited into a clinical trial; and which individual, role or body has responsibility for these measures.

Information for the first and third points mentioned is not held centrally. In relation to the second point, one new brain cancer treatment has received marketing authorisation from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency since 2018. This was vorasidenib, which was granted marketing authorisation in September 2025. In relation to the fourth point, the following table shows the total number of items in each calendar year from January 2018 to June 2026 that were dispensed in England regardless of where prescribed, based on the information within the Prescription Costs Analysis for the British National Formulary chemical substances of dabrafenib, trametinib, and vorasidenib:

Source: NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
Note: NHSBSA does not hold information on patient condition or reasons for why the drug has been prescribed.

No data is available where the year or chemical substance is not included.