Cancer: Medical Treatments

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published guidance in 2021, through its interventional procedures programme, that recommends that chemosaturation can be used for patients with secondary liver metastases resulting from a primary ocular melanoma, provided special arrangements are in place. NICE interventional procedures guidance considers the safety and efficacy of a treatment, but not whether it represents value for money and if it should be funded by the National Health Service. It is therefore for NHS England to decide if the treatment should be made routinely available based on the available evidence, and NHS England’s clinical commissioning policy states that it will not routinely commission chemosaturation for liver metastates from ocular melanomas, as there is insufficient evidence to support its use. Both NHS England’s policy and the NICE guidance will be reviewed if sufficient new evidence becomes available.

No assessment has been made of the adequacy of the support provided specifically to rare cancer patients. NHS England is committed to ensuring that all cancer patients are offered a Holistic Needs Assessment and Personalised Care and Support Planning, ensuring care is focused on what matters most to each person, including those with rare cancers. This is being delivered in line with the NHS Comprehensive Model for Personalised Care, empowering people to manage their care and the impact of their cancer and maximise the potential of digital and community-based support.

Health and wellbeing information and support is provided from diagnosis onwards and includes access to NHS Talking Therapy services for anxiety and depression. This is alongside wider work to improve psychosocial support for people affected by cancer, for instance through local partnerships with cancer support charities.

Additionally, the Innovative Device Access Pathway pilot, launched in February 2024, aims to streamline the introduction of innovative medical technologies to the market. The pilot provides intensive support and advice to selected target areas which are major causes of death and disease, and the pilot cohort included cancer treatments. The advice includes steps to overcome adoption barriers and facilitate patient access in the NHS. The learning from the pilot will be put to use.

The National Cancer Plan will include further details on how we will improve outcomes for cancer patients, including those with rarer cancers. We are now in discussions about what form that plan should take, and what its relationship to the 10-Year Health Plan and the Government’s wider Health Mission should be, and we will provide updates in due course.