Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of how measures in the National Cancer Plan for England, published on 4 February, will help to develop a standard of care for recurrent glioblastoma.

The Department recognises that survival rates are too low for rarer cancers, such as brain cancers, and that there are currently limited treatment options available for people who have been diagnosed with brain tumours.

The National Cancer Plan (NCP) has set comprehensive measures to drive up cancer survival rates and improve outcomes for all cancer patients, including those with rarer and less common cancers such as glioblastoma. These measures include speeding up diagnosis and treatment to meet the cancer standards, ensuring patients have access to the latest treatments and technology though innovative projects, expanding access to genomic testing to diagnose and support more personalised treatment approaches, and reducing variation in access to cancer care so patients receive timely diagnosis and treatment from wherever they live.

Patients with rare cancers will also benefit from a move to specialist multi-disciplinary teams, that cover multiple providers. This will allow them to benefit from the input of specialist centres and so access to the best evidence-based care.

To meet its obligations for rare cancers, including brain tumours, the Government will appoint a new national clinical lead for rare cancers. This national clinical lead will have a clear mandate to speak up for rare cancers, and to provide clinical advice and support for the delivery of the actions in the plan.

The NCP further included a commitment to reduce the number of rare cancers, including brain tumours, being diagnosed in emergency settings. Brain cancers cannot be staged like other cancers and are subsequently not included in current early diagnosis measures. The National Health Service in England will improve on this system by regularly publishing early diagnosis data for brain tumours, incentivising systems to focus on these cancers.

The successful implementation of this plan will mean that three in every four people diagnosed in 2035 will be cancer-free or living well with cancer after five years. That translates to 320,000 more lives saved over the course of this plan, and the fastest rate of improvement this century.

Finally, the Government also backed the launch of RECURRENT‑GB, a new nationwide trial exploring whether surgery can improve the quality of life for patients when glioblastoma comes back after treatment commenced and is backed by £1.98 million of National Institute of Health and Research funding.