Minimally Invasive Cancer Therapies

Question

11:16:00

Asked by

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to explore the potential of minimally invasive cancer therapies, such as focused ultrasound to treat less survivable cancers; and how this will be addressed in the national cancer plan.

I am sure that noble Lords will allow me to start by paying tribute to the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare, and to his contribution to your Lordships’ House. Many noble Lords will know that he is retiring from our House this summer. I thank him for all his work across a wide variety of issues, including skills, education, construction and of course health. I wish him well in his retirement. Thanks to the Government’s innovative devices access pathway, which streamlines access to innovative medical technologies, we are supporting the rollout of histotripsy for liver tumours, a non-invasive ultrasound treatment for hard-to-beat cancers. We are working with partners to develop a rollout timetable to be shared later this summer. The national cancer plan, due later this year, will seek to improve every aspect of cancer care, including outcomes for those with less survivable cancers.

My Lords, I thank the Minister for her response to my valedictory Question, and indeed all other colleagues, who have been generous—overgenerous, I would say—in their remarks on my retirement. I also thank the Minister for her response, which is very encouraging. Focused ultrasound is a non-invasive technology capable of both imaging and actual treatment, with the potential to treat a wide range of conditions, including less survivable cancers and brain diseases. What are the Government doing to pursue the massive potential improvements offered by focused ultrasound—for example, in the treatment of malignant brain tumours, as demonstrated to the noble Lord, Lord Vallance of Balham, at a recent Royal Society summer science exhibition? How will the Government seek to promote further research and development for this important technique to catch up with other countries, which I am sorry to say are ahead of us, so that more UK patients can benefit from it?

The noble Lord raises an important question. New technologies are coming through quickly and the potential is exciting in terms of outcomes and patient experience, with much less time spent in hospital, for example, freeing up beds and time for other treatments. As well as the treatment that the noble Lord mentioned, we are also looking at robotic navigational bronchoscopy, for example, to diagnose lung cancer. Those are just some examples. I reassure him that this work is front and centre of the life sciences plan, and we look forward to the rollout of the plan, together with the cancer plan, linked to the 10-year health programme.

My Lords, perhaps I may add our comments from the arts and heritage group to the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare. As Aberdare is the town of my father, I have always enjoyed hearing the noble Lord’s name spoken here. Will my noble friend pay tribute to the many members of the public whose generosity to cancer research charities has enabled the sort of work of which we speak to be continued?

The noble Baroness raises such an important point. Of course, the Government are committed to significant investment in research, but we cannot overestimate the work that so many individuals, companies and charities do in this space. I know that her personal experience is of giving them the support that they need.

My Lords, all new therapies require specialists to deliver them but, according to the Royal College of Radiologists, there is a shortage of both diagnostic and interventional radiology consultants. I accept that the specialist training takes six years, but the benefits of increasing that workforce are crucial to the Government’s objective of shortening waiting lists, as the Minister just suggested. What progress is being made to increase the number of those specialists? If there are logjams anywhere, what is being done to remove them?

The noble Baroness makes an incredibly important point. It is not just in this area that we have shortages in specialisms. The Government are committed to creating a much better environment for resident doctors moving through the process into specialisms and to giving them support. There is a whole raft of work, which I cannot go into now, on how we can make sure that those programmes are smoother, speeded up and more equitably spread around the country—to pick up on the important point regarding this type of specialism.

My Lords, I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare. I pay tribute to him and wish him a happy retirement. Only yesterday, he managed to offload two single-use defibrillators on to me as part of his clear-out. I thank him for introducing me to the world of defibrillators. In speaking to charities that represent those with less survivable cancers, I am told that one reason why they are less survivable is that they are spotted only at stage 3 or stage 4—quite often too late to survive. However, there are a number of tests which could spot some of those cancers; for example, I was told about a trial of a breathalyser test that could identify certain biomarkers and has huge potential. As the APPG on Less Survivable Cancers says, that early diagnosis could save thousands of lives a year. What is the department doing to ensure that trials of such tests that are promising are conducted as quickly and as widely as possible so they can be introduced sooner if they prove safe and appropriate to identify these cancers?

The noble Lord has identified an unexpected spin-off of being a Minister or shadow Minister in this place. The noble Lord makes a very important point. The fundamental basis of the 10-year plan is how we move to earlier diagnosis, with the three shifts, including moving treatment into the community. I have had personal experience; for example, where men who have been shy about going to a GP with concerns about their breathing have been taken out the GP route and allowed to go straight to a local X-ray department, where early stages have been picked up. All those innovative means already being used need to be rolled out. That is why the 10-year strategy is focusing on early prevention, shifting services to the community and making sure that we free up space within the acute sector for specialist services.

My Lords, I declare an interest, having had two early-stage tumours removed from my right lung just three weeks ago. I would never have known that I had cancer had I not had some CT scans and been proactive in my general cardiovascular health. What measures are the Government taking to promote early-stage screening, particularly for those over the age of 50?

I thank the noble Lord for sharing his personal experience with us. It makes the debate so much more real when we hear about the circumstances. The emphasis on shifting services to the community is to enable local places to recognise that there are hotspots for different cancers or diseases that can be picked up. The promotion of public health initiatives, such as screening, needs to be done at a very local level. From experience, I know that that promotion then passes on through word of mouth, which is often the most powerful way that we can get the message across.

My Lords, my noble friend the Minister mentioned research. Is she aware that the White Rose Cancer Report from Yorkshire Cancer Research showed big regional inequalities in diagnosis and research investment? Can she confirm that the national cancer plan will look at the recommendations from that report and at how we can tackle those regional inequalities, especially in areas such as Yorkshire, where I know she will have an interest?

I thank my noble friend for that question. I can assure her that I get regular bulletins, comments and questions from Yorkshire Cancer Research. I highly recommend that noble Lords look at the work that it does. The national cancer plan will identify the activity needed to reduce disparities in cancer survival across all types, but we know that geographic location, socio-economic status, ethnicity and inequalities are fundamental in helping to inform us of the work that needs to be done. Just to emphasise, we are working closely with Yorkshire Cancer Research, alongside other stakeholders, to inform the development of the plan.