Breast Cancer
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the availability of targeted treatments for invasive lobular breast cancer compared with other forms of breast cancer.
Answered by Preet Kaur Gill
The National Institute for Care Excellence (NICE) assesses new breast cancer medicines based on how well they work and whether they are good value for money. In doing so, it usually looks at factors such as the stage of the cancer and whether it has particular receptors, rather than whether it is classed as lobular or another type of breast cancer.
This means there is not a separate access route for invasive lobular breast cancer. Patients with invasive lobular breast cancer can access NICE-recommended targeted treatments on the same basis as other breast cancer patients, where they meet the clinical criteria in NICE’s guidance.
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