Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research his Department has (a) completed and (b) planned on the use of new technologies as part of the cervical cancer screening programme.
Answered by Edward Argar
Since 2015/16, the Department, through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has completed three research projects on the use of new technologies as part of the cervical cancer screening programme; two NIHR research projects are still active; and one project is planned.
In the same period, there are 19 completed NIHR studies on the use of new technologies as part of the cervical cancer screening programme; three active NIHR studies and one planned NIHR study.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using digital cytology in the UK’s cervical cancer screening programme.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The National Cervical Screening Programme uses both deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) based human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in the programme.
Laboratories can choose to use either the DNA or RNA HPV testing methods as both are approved.
The United Kingdom National Screening Committee has received a proposal to consider the use of digital pathology in the cancer screening programmes and work to assess this is under way.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of using mRNA-based HPV tests in primary cervical cancer screening.
Answered by Jo Churchill
The National Cervical Screening Programme uses both deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) based human papillomavirus (HPV) testing in the programme.
Laboratories can choose to use either the DNA or RNA HPV testing methods as both are approved.
The United Kingdom National Screening Committee has received a proposal to consider the use of digital pathology in the cancer screening programmes and work to assess this is under way.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans the Government has to provide funding to breast centres to help (a) deliver improved timely care and (b) meet service demands due to breast imaging workforce shortages.
Answered by Jo Churchill
Full details on funding allocations towards National Health Service workforce budgets in 2021-22 will be subject to a detailed financial planning exercise and finalised in due course.
The NHS is supporting breast screening services to recover from the impact of COVID-19 and to improve uptake so that cancers can be identified and treated earlier. Breast services are expected to benefit from the NHS Long Term Plan commitment to roll out Rapid Diagnostic Centres and the announcement in the Spending Review 2020 speech that ageing diagnostic machines will be replaced. Local health systems have been allocated additional funds to help manage the costs of COVID-19.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to support breast cancer clinical trial recruitment.
Answered by Edward Argar
In May 2020 the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) published a Restart Framework to support the restarting of research paused due to COVID-19. The framework provides a flexible structure for local decision-making. Our goal is to restore a fully active portfolio of NIHR research while continuing to support important COVID-19 studies as part of the Government’s response to the pandemic.
The majority of cancer clinical trials are open to recruitment.