Rare Cancers: Clinical Trials

The Department is committed to turbocharging clinical research and delivering better patient care, to make the United Kingdom a world-leading destination for clinical research.

The National Cancer Plan for England sets out the Government’s ambition to deliver world class cancer care through world class research, including delivering breakthroughs for rare and less survivable cancers. It commits to breaking the barriers to research, including difficulties recruiting to clinical trials, lower commercial viability, and less researcher focus, profile, and capacity. It sets out the Government’s plans to explore novel procurement routes for diagnostics or treatments for rare cancers, to make rare cancers a research priority, to increase spending on rare cancer research, and to give patients access to clinical trials.

Additionally, the Government is implementing the Rare Cancers Act 2026. The act requires the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to review the law related to marketing authorisations for rare cancer drugs and compare the UK’s regulatory system with those in other countries, producing a report within three years.

The recently implemented new UK clinical trials regulations will streamline trial approvals, reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, and support more proportionate, risk-based regulation.