Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the education of medical students on rare and less common cancers.

The training curricula for postgraduate trainee doctors, including clinical oncology and radiology, is set by the relevant Royal College. The General Medical Council approves curricula and assessment systems for each training programme.

For clinical oncology the training curricula is set by the Royal College of Radiologists and for medical oncology it is set by the Royal College of Physicians. These curricula emphasise the skills and approaches that a doctor must develop in order to ensure accurate and timely diagnoses and treatment plans for their patients, which includes diagnosis of conditions relevant to their specialism and the ability to identify and treat rare and less common conditions. All training programmes are continually kept under review by the relevant Royal College to ensure they remain up to date and meet patient needs.