Craig Tracey – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Tracey on 2016-10-07.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the article in The Lancet, Adjuvant bisphosonphate treatment in early breast cancer: meta-analyses of individual patient data from randomised trials, published in July 2015, what steps he has taken to ensure that bisphosphonates for the indication of preventing secondary breast cancer are routinely available to the patients who need them.
Nicola Blackwood
The Independent Cancer Taskforce report included a specific recommendation on the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates for treating people with breast cancer. We understand that NHS England is working to realise the ambitions set out in the report and will publish an update on progress made soon.
National prescribing arrangements already allow for bisphosphonates to be prescribed for the prevention of secondary breast cancer.
Updated guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on the use of adjuvant bisphosphonates for the management of breast cancer treatment-induced bone loss, taking into account the latest available evidence, is expected in July 2018.
