PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Cancer Drugs Fund (11 September 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect on cancer clinical trials of NHS England's decision announced on 4 September 2015 to remove (a) Abraxane and (b) 22 other drugs and indications from the Cancer Drugs Fund list of approved drugs; and if he will make a statement.

Asked by:
Sir Nicholas Dakin (Labour)

Neither the Department nor NHS England has made any such assessment.

Advances in medical science means that new cancer medicines are emerging all the time and NHS England needs to regularly prioritise its national Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) list so people can access these too. Decisions on which treatments are included on the list are made by the CDF expert clinical panel because it is right these decisions are clinically led.

Answered by:
George Freeman (Conservative)
16 September 2015