Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how NHS England plans to ensure that implementation of the cancer strategy published by the Independent Cancer Taskforce in July 2015 includes sufficient provision for people with rarer cancers.

The independent Cancer Taskforce’s strategy recommends improvements across the cancer pathway for all cancers. Specific recommendations for rarer cancers include encouraging the establishment of national or regional multi-disciplinary teams for rarer cancers and commissioning all treatment services for rare cancers nationally.

In addition, tackling the causes of rare diseases and cancer is the focal point of the 100,000 Genomes Project.