Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the Cancer Drug Fund has withdrawn regorafenib as the third line of treatment for patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumours in cases where it is the only treatment available for some patients with the disease who have not responded to other drugs; and how this is consistent with the statement by the Cancer Drug Fund that a drug will not be withdrawn if it represents the only treatment available for a certain condition.

Regorafinib has been available in the Cancer Drugs Fund for patients with non-resectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) who had progressed on other available anti-cancer therapies. Therefore this does not meet the criteria for being the only available treatment for this condition (metastatic or non-resectable GISTs).