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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what research his Department has (a) commissioned and (b) evaluated regarding the detection and treatment of breast cancer. [1238] Mr. Horam: The United Kingdom Health Departments, along with the Medical Research Council and the two major cancer research charities--the Cancer Research Campaign and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund--are currently funding four studies into breast cancer screening costing at least £5 million over five years. The trials are being co-ordinated by the United Kingdom Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research, UKCCCR. The Department of Health's contribution is expected to be some £2.4 million. The Department's policy research programme also funds the cancer screening evaluation unit--CSEU--at the Institute of Cancer Research by some £420,000 per year. The CSEU is undertaking work into two of the above UKCCCR trials. These are a trial of breast screening of women from age 40 and a trial of the early detection of breast cancer. The CSEU is also undertaking work on the national breast cancer screening record, and is evaluating the results of two pilot studies into breast screening for women aged 65 to 69. When the current CSEU contract comes to an end in December 2000, the Department will have invested some £7.3 million into the unit. In addition, the NHS research and development programme is currently undertaking 12 studies into breast cancer at a cost of some £1.2 million.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

1238; 284 c495W

Session

1996-97

Subjects

Breast cancer Finance Medical treatments Medicine Screening Research UK Coordinating Committee on Cancer Research Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit

Contains statistics

Yes