Asked by
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to
improve cancer outcomes for children.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
Cancer in children is thankfully rare, accounting for less than
1% of cancer cases each year. The Government are dedicated to
improving cancer outcomes and our new 10-year cancer plan will
further our efforts to improve childhood cancer diagnosis rates
and outcomes. We continue to invest in research, including with
the paediatric experimental cancer research centres network,
which is dedicated to early-phase research on childhood cancers.
(Con)
My Lords, childhood cancer is not rare; it is the biggest killer
by disease of children under 14 in the United Kingdom. Sadly, it
is often diagnosed late and one in five children who get it will
die. The issue was highlighted in the House of Commons last month
in an excellent debate led by . There, there was a
cross-party consensus that, with just 3% of funding spent on
children’s cancer, there needs to be greater emphasis on
research, detection and treatment. Will childhood cancer be a
priority for the Government’s 10-year cancer strategy and will
the requested childhood cancer mission become a reality?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for the question and for discussing the
issue with me previously. As he rightly says, even though it is
rare, cancer is the biggest killer of children aged up to about
the age of 15. The Government’s new 10-year plan for cancer care
is under development. It will address the cancer needs of the
entire population, including those of children. We also recognise
the severe impact that cancer has on not only the patient but
their family and friends, and are focusing in particular on
interventions that support patients through difficult journeys of
diagnosis, treatment and aftercare.
(CB)
My Lords, research for finding new treatments for cancers,
particularly childhood cancers, where the numbers are small,
requires international collaboration. Some 42% of current CRUK
clinical trials have international partners. The Government are
consulting on clinical trials regulation and we have data sharing
and protection legislation going through Parliament. Does the
Minister agree that it is important that neither the regulation
related to clinical trials nor the legislation related to data
sharing should in any way jeopardise our international role in
clinical trials collaboration?
(Con)
I thank the noble Lord for the question, which cuts across three
of the priority areas in my ministerial portfolio: data sharing,
the life sciences industry—in which clinical trials and research
play a huge part—and international collaboration. It is really
important that we continue international collaboration. However,
one of the challenges we face is that we have to make sure that
patients are comfortable with researchers having access to their
data. As part of that work, we have called in civil liberties
organisations to help us along that journey. So, while we
encourage more people to share data, we have to make sure that
they have those protections. We can have the best systems in the
world, but, if people opt out, they are useless.
(Lab)
My Lords, many families of children with cancer have to travel a
long distance to get treatment for their child. Those families
face financial problems. Will the Government do more to help
families who have children with cancer and who are feeling
financial pressures because they need to travel and cannot
continue to work because of the pressure the family is under?
(Con)
The noble Lord makes an incredibly important point about support.
One of the things we are looking at in the research is how to
help not just the patient but their family and their wider
support network. I will take his specific question about
assistance back to my department and write to the noble Lord.
(Con)
My Lords, I declare my interest as chair of Genomics England. I
am pleased to report to the House that whole-genome sequencing is
now improving care for children with cancer as part of the NHS
Genomic Medicine Service. In fact, Great Ormond Street recently
found that WGS has reclassified diagnosis in 14% of cases,
changed management of the condition in 24% of cases and improved
diagnosis in 81% of cases. Will the Minister join me in thanking
those at Genomics England and in the NHS who worked so hard
during the pandemic to get this service up and running? Will he
also pledge today to do whatever he can to scale this service so
that we can play our full part in tackling this pernicious
disease head-on?
(Con)
I thank my noble friend for that. It is really important that we
look at the huge potential of genomic research and the
information it can give us. It is also important that, as we move
towards the newly born programme, we do genomic sequencing of
newly born babies so we have that data and are aware of the
issues that could arise in their lifetime. In addition, we are
looking at technology on testing—some research trials show that
there are blood tests that could identify up to 50 different
types of cancer early—so there is a lot of work going on in this
area.
The Lord Speaker ()
My Lords, we have a virtual contribution from the noble Baroness,
Lady Brinton.
(LD) [V]
My Lords, too often people think only of outcomes that are about
survival. Children with cancer are treated with therapies that
were tested on and designed principally for adults. Cancer
Research UK knows that these treatments can and do have serious
long-term impacts on these young growing bodies and that parents
often struggle to get the support they need. What is being done
to improve follow-up care for childhood cancer survivors: for
their education, their health and in particular their mental
health?
(Con)
All these issues are being looked at as we understand more about
childhood cancer and also in the context of wider support. That
is important not only during the time they are receiving
treatment; as the noble Baroness rightly says, it is not just
about the cancer itself but about some of the poor patients and
their families, because when they get the bad news it affects
their mental health. We have to look at this in a holistic way
and there are a number of initiatives. I will write to the noble
Baroness with some more detail.
(CB)
My Lords, early diagnosis is key to successful outcomes in all
kinds of cancer. In the long-term plan the Government set out an
ambitious target for increasing the early diagnosis of most
cancers. Can the Minister tell the House what impact Covid, the
subsequent backlog and the shortage of clinicians in the NHS is
having on the achievement of this target, how progress towards it
is being measured and how it is being reported?
(Con)
I thank the noble and gallant Lord for that question. I am really
sorry—I have completely forgotten what it was. Can he remind me?
(CB)
Could the Minister tell us what impact Covid, with its backlog
and the shortage of NHS clinicians, is having on how the target
is being measured and reported?
(Con)
I completely apologise to all noble Lords. It is important that
we look at this issue; I am afraid I will have to write to the
noble and gallant Lord with more detail.
(Lab)
Following on from the question of the noble and gallant Lord
about the matter of significant improvements being made in the
lives of children with cancer by detecting cancer early and
avoiding delays in care, there are of course three components to
early diagnosis, with the first being awareness of symptoms by
families and primary caregivers. Can the Minister tell your
Lordships’ House what assessment has been made of the level of
awareness and what is being done to promote that awareness among
families and primary caregivers?
(Con)
The noble Baroness raises an important point about how we raise
awareness, and that goes right across not only the population but
patients themselves. NHS England and NHS Improvement are
developing plans for future phases of their Help Us Help You
campaign to raise awareness of key cancer symptoms. To date, the
campaign has contributed to the record high levels of urgent
cancer referrals that the NHS has seen since March 2021.
Perhaps I may take the opportunity to address the question from
the noble and gallant Lord. Covid clearly affected the backlog.
One of the things about the waiting list is that now 80% of
people on it are waiting for diagnosis. One of the issues we are
looking at is how you push out more community diagnosis centres
around the country, not only in hospitals but in shopping centres
and sports arenas, so that effectively we go to the patient and
detect as early as possible. We hope that all that, in
conjunction with things such as blood testing and genomic
sequencing, will lead to earlier diagnosis.
(Con)
My Lords, brain tumours are the single biggest cause of death
among children and adults under the age of 40 of any cancer. The
Government made a generous commitment to increase funding, which
is absolutely essential for brain tumour cancer research, but, so
far, they have not met the target that they themselves set. Will
my noble friend undertake to review this situation, given the
seriousness of the position?
(Con)
One of the things about answering a question like that is that we
are now aware of so many different types of cancer. For example,
a blood test that has been trialled identifies 50 different types
of cancer. Sadly, my mother-in-law died of a brain tumour, and I
have asked questions about that in the department. If my noble
friend will allow me, rather than read out a short answer I will
write to him in more detail.
