Lord Freyberg – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Freyberg on 2016-01-21.
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what estimate they have made of how many cancer patients could receive a molecular test on Genomics England’s cancer sequencing budget for 2016 if Genomics England (1) continued to use whole genome sequencing on tumour and normal tissue pairs, and (2) switched to deep sequenced panel tests.
Lord Prior of Brampton
The information requested is not yet available. The 100,000 Genomes Project is a research project which is investigating the benefits of whole genome sequencing for patients with cancer and rare diseases. One of the objectives of the Project is to establish the evidence to inform future decisions on National Health Service testing.
The cancer part of the 100,000 Genomes Project has only recently completed the pilot phase and is incorporating those lessons into routine recruitment of cancer patients. To date, 1,286 tumour and normal genomes have been sequenced and are being interpreted by Genomics England. The pilot phase has involved research participants who have given informed consent, including details about whether there will be feedback of results during the pilot phase. The pilot phase has proved invaluable in understanding the technical requirements for sample preparation and data collection which will be incorporated into the main phase of recruitment in early 2016. As this phase is just starting there is no data on the average turn-around-time or on patient survival.
