Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to assess the potential use of artificial intelligence benchmarking to reduce the side effects of radiotherapy when used to treat prostate cancer.

The Government remains committed to looking for opportunities to implement artificial intelligence (AI) in cancer services to speed up diagnosis, improve treatment efficacy, and reduce treatment side effects where possible. We have demonstrated this commitment through a £133 million investment in the AI in Health and Care Award, which has funded innovations relevant to prostate cancer diagnosis and treatment that align with the NHS Long Term Plan.

While AI is already being used to support diagnostic and treatment pathways, any future use of AI intended to further improve radiotherapy services, will be carefully evaluated to ensure safety, efficacy, and clinical benefit and benchmarked against existing standards and approaches.

The Government’s recently published National Cancer Plan sets out how we will modernise the National Health Service and utilise AI to support faster radiotherapy planning, provide more accurate contouring, improve productivity, and free up clinicians’ time to focus on patient care. Over the next decade, we will harness AI to help the NHS to deliver more personalised and responsive cancer care.