Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what research funding has been allocated to cholangiocarcinoma through (a) UK Research and Innovation and (b) the National Institute for Health and Care Research in the last five years.

The Department invests £1.6 billion each year on research through its research delivery arm, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). NIHR research expenditure for all cancers was £133 million in 2023/24, reflecting its high priority. These investments are pivotal to informing efforts to improve cancer prevention, treatment, and outcomes, including research into cholangiocarcinoma and cancers of the bile duct.

In the period 2020/21 to 2024/25, the NIHR invested approximately £2 million across five chloangiocarcinoma research projects. NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure and workforce enabled another 90 non-NIHR funded cholangiocarcinoma research studies to take place in the same period. In addition, between 2020 and 2024, UK Research and Innovation committed a further £1.4 million to cholangiocarinoma research.

NIHR investments have included studies looking at the clinical and cost effectiveness of drugs for treating cholangiocarcinoma, including futibatinib, and druvalumab in conjunction with gemcitabine and cisplatin.

NIHR continues to welcome high quality, high impact funding applications for research into any aspect of human health and care, including cholangiocarcinoma and cancers of the bile duct.