§ Mr. Gordon PrenticeTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what Government-funded research is being undertaken into leukaemia and other bone marrow related diseases. [29087]
§ Mr. MaloneThe main agency through which the Government support biomedical and clinical research is the Medical Research Council (MRC), which receives its grant-in-aid from the office of my right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1993–94, the latest year for which figures are available, the MRC spent a total of £5,084,000 on research directly related to leukaemia. In addition, a further £796,000 was spent on a number of research projects of relevance to bone marrow disease and transplantation.
The Childhood Cancer Research Group—CCRG—funded by the Department at the University of Oxford, is responsible for the national registry of childhood tumours and carries out a programme of epidemiological studies of childhood cancer and leukaemia, together with follow-up studies of children treated for these diseases. The Department funds the CCRG by some £350,000 per year.