Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what progress his Department has made on implementing the recommendations made by the Liver Advisory Group in 2020 on liver transplantation for the treatment of perihilar cholangiocarcinoma and intra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

The Liver Advisory Group, on behalf of NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT), are exploring pilot programmes for selected patients with both small intra-hepatic cholangiocarcinoma and perihilar cholangiocarcinoma (pHCCa) with underlying primary sclerosing cholangitis.

The pathway for intrahepatic Cholangiocarcinoma is now live and there is an offering process in place which should ensure they receive a timely named patient offer. The protocol for pHCCa remains in development and will soon be live in the third quarter of this year. Additionally, in collaboration with NHS England, NHSBT are developing the pHCCa as a commissioning evaluation for the neoadjuvant pathway of proton beam therapy which is a ground-breaking intervention that is being evaluated in this clinical transplant pathway.