Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will provide additional funding for prostate cancer (a) care and (b) research.

The Government is committed to getting the National Health Service diagnosing cancer earlier and treating it faster, so that more patients survive with better outcomes, including for those with prostate cancer. The NHS is working towards the Faster Diagnosis Standard (FDS), which ensures a patient receives their cancer diagnosis or has cancer ruled out within 28 days of an urgent referral. NHS England has streamlined cancer pathways, including implementing a best-timed prostate cancer diagnostic pathway, so that those suspected of prostate cancer receive a multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging scan first, which ensures that only those men most at-risk undergo an invasive biopsy. Best practice timed pathways support the on-going improvement effort to shorten diagnosis pathways, reduce variation, improve experience of care, and meet the FDS.

Furthermore, the NHS England’s Getting It Right First Time programme published guidance in April 2024 to support the implementation of good practice in the management of prostate cancer, which includes ensuring the diagnostic pathways for prostate cancer were implemented from a primary care setting to a secondary care presentation.

The Government is strongly committed to supporting research into cancer. Through partnerships with patients, researchers, funders, and charities we continue to play a significant role in global efforts against the disease. Research is crucial in tackling cancer, which is why the Department invests £1.5 billion per year in health research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £121.8 million in 2022/23. The NIHR spends more on cancer than any other disease group.

The TRANSFORM trial is an important example of prostate cancer research, as a £42 million screening trial which aims to find ways of detecting prostate cancer earlier. Prostate Cancer UK is leading the development of the trial, with the Government contributing £16 million through the NIHR. The TRANSFORM trial will also aim to address some of the inequalities that exist in prostate cancer diagnosis today, ensuring that at least 10% of the men who are invited to participate in the trial are black, to inform a targeted approach for earlier diagnosis.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including prostate cancer. Applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money, and scientific quality.