Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what progress they are making in supporting research on brain cancers.

Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department of Health and Social Care invests over £1.6 billion per year in research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24. Cancer is a major area of NIHR spend, reflecting its high priority.

In the five years between 2018/19 and 2022/23, NIHR directly invested £11.3 million in research projects and programmes focused on brain tumours across 15 awards. In addition, our wider investments in NIHR research infrastructure, namely facilities, services and the research workforce, further allow us to leverage research funding from other donors and organisations. These investments are estimated to be £31.5 million, between 2018/19 and 2022/23, and have enabled 227 brain cancer research studies to take place in the same period. In total NIHR investments have enabled 8,500 people to participate in potentially life-changing research in the National Health Service over this time.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including brain cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition.

In September 2024, the NIHR announced new research funding opportunities for brain cancer research, spanning both adult and paediatric populations. This includes a national NIHR Brain Tumour Research Consortium, to ensure the most promising research opportunities are made available to adult and child patients, and a new funding call to generate high quality evidence in brain tumour care, support, and rehabilitation. In partnership with the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, in 2025 NIHR are also funding two brain tumour research fellowships.

The Department of Health and Social Care has also relaunched the Children and Young People’s Cancer Taskforce, which met on 4 March 2025. The taskforce will examine clinical and non-clinical ways to improve outcomes and patient experience for children and young people with cancer, including research. The taskforce will feed into wider Departmental work on the National Cancer Plan.

The Government recognises that a cancer-specific strategy is needed to improve outcomes for people living with cancer. The National Cancer Plan will work to address these challenges for cancer patients across the country, using a system-wide approach to improve cancer services from prevention and research, to access and treatment. The National Cancer Plan will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years and provide an NHS that is there when you need it.

The NIHR works closely with other government funders, including UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, UKRI delivers a substantial portfolio of researcher-led projects. This includes research on the fundamental and mechanistic biology of brain tumours and the development of new technology and medicines to treat brain tumours. Total UKRI spend in 2023/24 on brain tumour specific research was £7.08 million.