PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Gastrointestinal Cancer: Drugs (26 February 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of taking Regorafenib off the Cancer Drugs Fund list on the health outcomes of gastrointestinal stromal tumour cancer patients.

Asked by:
Mr Toby Perkins (Labour)

NHS England has advised that its review of the national Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) list will ensure that more patients will be able to access drugs that provide better outcomes for their cancers.

This re-evaluation of some CDF drugs, including regorafenib (Stivarga) for the treatment of gastrointestinal stromal tumours, will mean that some patients who would have received the drugs to be removed from the list will switch to alternative CDF drugs and the remainder will be offered conventional treatments.

NHS England has also assured the Department that no patient whose treatment is currently being funded through the Fund will have funding withdrawn, as long as it is clinically appropriate that they continue to receive that treatment. In addition, no drug will be removed from the Fund where it is the only therapy for that condition.

Answered by:
George Freeman (Conservative)
5 March 2015