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 outcomes for invasive lobular breast cancer patients.

Lobular breast cancer impacts many lives. According to Cancer Research UK, lobular is the second most common breast cancer in the UK.

We are backing world-leading AI trials to improve diagnostic capacity and early detection. On 4 February 2025, the Department of Health and Social Care announced that nearly 700,000 women across the country will take part in a world-leading Early Detection using Information Technology in Health, or EDITH, trial backed by £11 million of government support via National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NHS in England will also monitor the emerging evidence from the Breast Risk Adaptive Imaging for Density, or BRAID, trial, which aims to determine whether additional imaging with one of several types of scans, is helpful in diagnosing breast cancer in women with dense breast tissue. This will target screening programmes at women who are at greater risk of cancer.

The Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) are committed to continuing to support the development of fundable research proposals and help drive a stronger collective understanding of the biology behind lobular breast cancer, as well as effective treatment and management of this disease. In order to further stimulate research in this area, the NIHR launched a highlight notice in late 2025, encouraging applications across its research programmes and training.

Under our National Cancer Plan for England, we will take action to raise awareness locally, improve pathways and offer better treatments to ensure more patients survive and live well with cancer than ever before, including for lobular breast cancer.