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Dept of Health

Answer

Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what additional funding his Department is providing for research into the causes and prevention of breast cancer. [18525] Mr. Boateng: The Government are committed to encouraging breast cancer research. The main agency through which the Government support medical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC). Since 1995-96, the Council has supported 81 projects on breast cancer with a total cost of £13 million. Six projects were also supported in MRC Units at a cost of £1.4 million in 1995-96. The Department of Health's Policy Research Programme (PRP) is currently funding studies into breast cancer with a total cost of £2.4 million. In addition, the PRP provides support of £420,000 per year to the Cancer Screening Evaluation Unit at the Institute of Cancer Research, which deals largely with breast cancer screening. Recent commissions include a contribution of £573,000 to the UKCCCR's (United Kingdom Co-ordinating Committee on Cancer Research) Breast Radiotherapy Fractionation Trial (the START trial) and over £100,000 to evaluate the East Sussex and Leeds/Wakefield pilot projects currently being established for breast screening in women aged 65 to 69. The NHS National Cancer Research and Development Programme is currently funding studies into breast cancer totalling some £500,000.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

18525; 302 c344W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Breast cancer Cancer Medicine Research Medical Research Council Institute of Cancer Research

Contains statistics

Yes