Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether NICE guidance on early breast cancer will be amended to recommend shorter courses of breast radiotherapy be offered after the covid-19 outbreak.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidance on the diagnosis and management of early and locally advanced breast cancer (reference NG101) in July 2018

NICE’s processes allow it to carry out an exceptional review of a guideline when significant new data becomes available. NICE is aware of the FAST trial and will be tracking the Fast-Forward clinical trial, a randomised clinical trial testing a one-week course of curative whole breast radiotherapy against a standard three-week schedule in terms of local cancer control and late adverse effects in women with early breast cancer. NICE will be looking at the evidence and considering its impact on the guideline.