Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the extent of barriers to recruitment for glioblastoma clinical trials in the UK.

The Department has not made a specific assessment of the extent of barriers to recruitment for glioblastoma clinical trials. However, the Government recognises that patients with rare cancers can face particular challenges in accessing research opportunities.

The National Cancer Plan for England sets out the Government’s ambition to deliver world class cancer care through world class research, including by making it easier for patients with rare cancers to find and take part in relevant clinical trials. It makes rare cancers a research priority, backed by increased spending on rarer cancer research, with commitments to incentivise inclusion of rare cancers in future trials of multi-cancer early detection tests.

Additionally, the Government is implementing the Rare Cancers Act 2026 that will make it easier for clinical trials on rare cancers to take place in England, by ensuring the patient population can be more easily contacted by researchers and that a National Specialty Lead for Rare Cancers is appointed in the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research Delivery Network.

The NIHR also provides an online service called Be Part of Research which promotes participation in health and care research, by allowing users to search for relevant studies and register their interest. The service is available at the following link:

https://bepartofresearch.nihr.ac.uk/

The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research, including clinical trials on glioblastoma.