The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has delivered a key update following thousands of complaints regarding the current state of brain cancer treatment across the UK. The department’s statement addresses an active petition, which has now garnered more than 20,000 signatures, demanding enhanced funding initiatives.
Brain tumours are now the leading cause of cancer death among children and adults under 40 in the UK, according to the Brain Tumour Charity. Approximately 13,000 people are diagnosed each year with a primary brain tumour, including 900 children and young people.
Considering these statistics, the parliamentary campaign pressed the Government to examine increased funding to ‘give patients a fighting chance’. The campaign contended that ‘treatments haven’t changed in decades’ and advocated for expanded exploratory research initiatives.
Responding to these concerns, the DHSC also acknowledged that ‘more needs to be done’ and confirmed a National Cancer Plan will be released later this year. Its message, published on October 3, read: “Every brain cancer diagnosis has life-changing impact on patients and their families. Research is vital to ensure people can get the most effective cutting-edge treatments and highest quality care.
“Between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the Department of Health and Social Care, via the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) directly invested £11.8 million in research projects and programmes focused on brain tumours.
“NIHR’s wider investments in research infrastructure are estimated to be £37.5 million, supporting the delivery of 261 brain tumour research studies and enabling over 11,400 people to participate in potentially life-changing brain tumour research. However, we understand that more needs to be done to boost research into brain tumours.”
The DHSC also insisted that it is now ‘working closely’ with patient and research communities to ‘stimulate high-quality research applications’. This has included establishing a national Brain Tumour Research Consortium and a dedicated funding call.
Nevertheless, it emphasised that there are ‘no plans’ to introduce a new ‘Right to Try’ initiative for new treatments. In the US, the Right to Try Act allows eligible patients with life-threatening conditions to access unapproved investigational treatments under certain conditions.
The DHSC’s response continued: “Regarding new and personalised treatments, the government is committed to securing patient access to effective and innovative new medicines, including for brain tumours. There are established routes to support timely access for NHS patients to safe and clinically- and cost-effective new medicines and there are no plans to introduce a new Right to Try initiative for new treatments.
“The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) evaluates all new medicines and makes recommendations for the NHS on whether they should be routinely funded by the NHS. NICE aims wherever possible to issue guidance on new medicines close to the point of licensing and our Life Sciences Sector Plan published in July sets out the measures we are taking to streamline decision making to accelerate patient access to new medicines by three to six months.
“The NHS in England is required to fund medicines recommended by NICE, and NHS England funds cancer medicines from the point of positive draft NICE guidance, accelerating patient access by around five months on average.”
In addition, the department also added: “In terms of future publications, the National Cancer Plan, due to be published later this year, will have patients at its heart and will cover the entirety of the cancer pathway, from referral and diagnosis to treatment and aftercare.
“It will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, to improve the experience and outcomes for people with cancer. Our goal is to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer over the next ten years, including for brain cancer.”
The petition entitled ‘Invest in brain cancer and give rights – turn terminal into treatable’ has already garnered more than 20,000 signatures. If it reaches 100,000, it will be considered for a debate in Parliament.
You can view the petition in full here.
This story originally appeared on Express.co.uk
