Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
increase the access to minimally invasive cancer therapies.
(CB)
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on
the Order Paper, and I declare my registered interest as a
trustee of the UK Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
(Con)
NHS England’s specialised commissioning team has been undertaking
work to expand the number of providers offering minimally
invasive cancer therapies such as selective internal radiation
therapy. The market engagement and prior information notice
aspects of this have now been completed, with regional teams now
putting in place the necessary contractual arrangements with NHS
trusts.
(CB)
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer and welcome him to
the Dispatch Box. Minimally invasive cancer therapies such as
focused ultrasound, SIRT, which he mentioned, cryoablation and
radioligand therapy, offer significant benefits both to patients
to the NHS: faster recovery times; reduced pain; fewer side
effects; and less pressure on NHS facilities and staff. How will
the 10-year cancer plan reflect the need to increase awareness of
these therapies among patients and clinicians and increase access
to them? Will the Government’s proposed workforce plan ensure the
availability of enough interventional radiologists to deliver
MICTs at the scale needed?
(Con)
My Lords, I pay tribute to the noble Lord and the work that he
has done on the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Minimally
Invasive Cancer Therapies. In 2022-23, Health Education England
is continuing to take forward priorities identified in the cancer
workforce plan phase 1 and is investing an additional £50 million
in 2022-23 to further expand the cancer and diagnosis workforce.
Spending plans for individual budgets in 2023-24 to 2024-25
inclusive are subject to a detailed financial planning exercise
and will be finalised in due course.
(LD)
My Lords, as the noble Lord, , has already pointed out,
interventional radiologists are essential to being able to
provide minimally invasive cancer therapies. What is the
Minister’s response to the Royal College of Radiologists’ 2021
census report, which painted a picture of growing concerns about
the availability of interventional radiologists, as supply is not
keeping up with demand? Will this particular shortage also be
covered in the workforce plan? We will keep going on about the
plan until we see it.
(Con)
My Lords, NHS England commissions selective internal radiation
therapy as a treatment of choice for patients with unresectable
advanced hepatocellular carcinoma in accordance with technology
appraisals and metastatic colorectal cancer in accordance with
the NHS England clinical commissioning policy. It should be noted
that the market engagement and prior information notice process
permitted any NHS trust that hosts a specialist liver service and
multidisciplinary team to put themselves forward, either
independently or in partnership with other NHS trusts.
(CB)
My Lords, Cancer Research UK published a report last week that
shows that, by 2040, we will have half a million new cases of
cancer. Considering that the UK has the worst record on cancer
outcomes in western Europe and that we are not likely to meet the
Government’s target of diagnosing 75% of new cancers at stage 1
or 2, why did the Minister in the other place state that the
Government are to abandon the 10-year cancer plan, particularly
when the previous Secretary of State wanted a new plan which was
more challenging and robust?
(Con)
My Lords, improving early diagnosis of cancer is a priority for
the NHS. That is why one of the core ambitions of the NHS’s
long-term plan is to diagnose 75% of cancers at stage 1 or 2 by
2028. November 2022 saw the highest number of urgent GP referrals
for cancer ever, with nearly 265,000 patients referred,
representing 125% of November 2019 levels on a per working day
basis, compared to the pandemic low of 80,000 in April 2020. It
is a priority of this Government for the NHS.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Genomics England.
Will the Minister join me in welcoming the announcement of the UK
cancer vaccine launchpad? It aims to rapidly identify large
numbers of cancer patients who could be eligible for trials and
to explore the potential of cancer vaccines among multiple types
of cancer. This is vital research if we want to have any hope of
identifying and tackling the challenges mentioned by the noble
Lord, .
(Con)
My noble friend raises a very good point. One in two of us will
develop cancer in the future, so we need to explore all therapies
or vaccines wherever possible.
(Lab)
My Lords, Cancer Research UK has shown that the annual rate of
cancer diagnosis will increase by one-third over the next two
decades, rising to nearly half a million. It takes 15 years to
train an oncologist, pathologist or surgeon. In the light of
previous questions, will the Minister assure the House that the
long-awaited NHS workforce plan, when it is finally published,
will address these particular shortages? How will the workforce
plan dovetail with the also promised major conditions strategy,
which the Government have announced that they are now putting in
place of the 10-year cancer strategy, as we previously heard,
which itself was long overdue?
(Con)
My Lords, I can assure the noble Baroness that the new major
conditions strategy will set out a strong and coherent policy
agenda that sets out a shift to integrate whole-person care.
Interventions set out in the strategy will aim to alleviate
pressure on the health system as well as support the Government’s
objective of increasing healthy-life expectancy and reducing
ill-health-related labour market inactivity. We will cover the
patient pathway from prevention to treatment and set out the
standards patients should expect in the short term and over a
five-year lifetime. Many stakeholders have already responded to
the Government’s call for evidence on cancer.
(CB)
My Lords, we now know that there are drugs that attack cancer
cells directly, without damaging the surrounding tissue. These
literally non-invasive treatments are available to some, but can
the Minister assure the House that these drugs are now available
to every trust throughout the country?
(Con)
My Lords, I do not have a specific answer to that question, but I
can certainly respond in writing.
(Lab)
My Lords, behind this Question lies an even more worrying fact,
which is that the NHS is very, very slow to adopt new medicines
and new treatments. Does the Minister accept that our very poor
outcomes for cancer in relation to many OECD countries are partly
down to this lack of adoption of proven new treatments? What are
the Government doing to turn this around?
(Con)
My Lords, looking ahead, a number of specialised services will be
delegated to integrated care boards, which in turn will want to
work with and through local cancer alliances to plan and organise
access to cancer services, including specialised services such as
SIRT and non-specialised services such as highly intensive
focused ultrasound. Following delegation, NHS England will remain
the accountable commissioner for all prescribed specialised
services and will continue to determine national standards,
including new treatments.
(CB)
My Lords, I am sorry to come back, but the Minister did not
answer my question, which was: why are the Government abandoning
the 10-year cancer plan? Is it to be replaced with a new plan, or
is it totally abandoned?
(Con)
My Lords, we have not abandoned anything. It is all part of the
Government’s strategy to improve cancer outcomes.
