Roger Godsiff – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Roger Godsiff on 2015-11-02.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2015 to Question 11045, what the evidential base is for the statement in that Answer that the planned removal of drugs from the Cancer Drugs Fund would have no or minimal impact on survival rates for certain cancers; and what his definition is of minimal impact in that context.

George Freeman

NHS England is responsible for the operation of the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). NHS England has advised that its expert CDF clinically-led panel considers that none of the drugs removed from the national CDF list on 4 November 2015 represent a cure for patients as they are given with palliative intent.

With respect to any impact on survival duration, the panel considered the drugs provided either no or a small to modest proven effect on survival and hence the panel considered their removal would have a minimal impact.

Information on the decisions made on individual drugs is available in the relevant decision summary published in NHS England’s website at:

www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/cdf-drug-sum/

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