Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that people living with incurable secondary breast cancer have timely access to new and effective medicines, including treatments such as Enhertu and Trodelvy.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is the independent body that makes recommendations on whether new licensed medicines should be routinely funded by the National Health Service based on an assessment of clinical and cost effectiveness.

NICE has recommended Enhertu, also named trastuzumab deruxtecan, for use in the Cancer Drugs Fund for the treatment of women with HER2-positive secondary breast cancer and it is now available for the treatment of eligible patients while further data on its effectiveness is being collected that will inform a NICE decision on routine funding. NICE did not recommend Enhertu for the treatment of HER-2 low metastatic and unresectable breast cancer as a clinically and cost-effective use of NHS resources.

NICE terminated its appraisal of Trodelvy, also named sacituzumab govitecan, for treating hormone receptor-positive HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer after two or more treatments in August 2025, as the company, Gilead, did not provide an evidence submission.