To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking to improve (a) diagnosis and (b) outcomes for people with glioblastomas.
Answered on
22 January 2024
The Government is committed to improving the survival rates for all cancers. The Department and NHS England are working on implementing interventions to diagnose cancer early. When cancer is diagnosed early, there are often more curative treatment options, and this is associated with better survival.
The Government is working jointly with NHS England on implementing the delivery plan for tackling the COVID-19 backlogs in elective care and plans to spend more than £8 billion from 2022/23 to 2024/25 to help drive up and protect elective activity, including cancer diagnosis and treatment activity.
To find and diagnose all cancers earlier, NHS England is streamlining cancer pathways to support diagnosis within 28 days. This is supported by the roll-out of 150 community diagnostic centres so far to increase capacity for diagnostic tests, with capacity prioritised for cancer diagnostics.
In May 2018, the Government announced £40 million of funding for brain tumour research as part of the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). This includes research into glioblastoma. NIHR has funded four projects into glioblastoma research since financial year 2018, with a combined total funding value of £2.7 million.