PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Cancer: Research (29 June 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the level of research funding into pancreatic cancer in each of the last five years; how that figure compares to funding for research on other cancer types; and if he will make a statement.

Asked by:
Stuart Andrew (Conservative)

My Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health has had no such discussions.

Expenditure by the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) on cancer research is shown in the following table.

£ million

2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14
100.9	104.1	133.2	129.9

A figure for 2014/15 is not yet available. Data is not available for total NIHR research spend on specific cancer sites as site-specific data cannot be disaggregated from total expenditure through NIHR research infrastructure funding streams.

The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health, including pancreatic cancer. These applications are subject to peer review and judged in open competition, with awards being made on the basis of the importance of the topic to patients and health and care services, value for money and scientific quality.

The NIHR has recently awarded £290,986 to University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for a phase II trial of endoscopic ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation of cystic tumours of the pancreas.

The NIHR Research Design Service is available to help prospective applicants, including applicants in pancreatic cancer research, develop and design high-quality proposals for submission to NIHR itself and also to other national, peer-reviewed funding competitions for applied health or social care research. The service provides expert advice to researchers on all aspects of preparing grant applications in these fields, including advice on research methodology, clinical trials, patient involvement, and ethics and governance.

Answered by:
George Freeman (Conservative)
2 July 2015