Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has she made of the adequacy of diagnosis rates for lobular breast cancer.

The Department has not made a specific assessment as invasive lobular breast cancer (ILBC) can be difficult to detect through screening. ILBC is harder to diagnose than most other breast cancer types, with mammograms less effective at detecting it, particularly in women with dense breast tissue. Therefore ILBC is often diagnosed later than other breast cancer types.

Research is showing how screening for and diagnosing ILBC can be improved to detect disease earlier and more consistently than current rates, with potential to develop more targeted treatments. To further improve the detection of breast cancers including ILBC, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is currently funding a £1.3 million research project to determine whether an abbreviated form of breast magnetic resonance imaging can detect breast cancers missed by screening mammography.

The Department continues to work closely with research funding partners such as Cancer Research UK, the Medical Research Council, and cancer charities who fund research into new scientific discoveries including ILBC.