§ Mr. TredinnickTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many deaths occurred last year from (i) prostate, (ii) breast, (iii) lung and (iv) colon cancer; and what was the amount of Government funding for(a) treatment and (b) research allocated to each of those cancers. [77572]
§ Mr. HuttonThe number of deaths in England and Wales in 1997 (the latest data available) for the following cancers are given in the table.
ICD code Men Women ICD9 185 Prostate 8,523 — ICD9 174/5 Breast 67 11,980 ICD9 162 Trachea, bronchus and lung 19,087 10,889 ICD9 153 Colon 5,125 5,323 Information about the cost of treatment classified by disease is not routinely collected locally, hence there is no collation of such data centrally. However, approximately 6.3 per cent. of national health service hospital expenditure is on cancer.
The Government fund health and medical research in a number of ways. The Department funds research and development to support its work on policy development and evaluation in health and social care. The Department also manages the national health service research and development levy, which is used to support research and development of relevance to the national health service in hospitals, general practice and other health care settings, and to fund the NHS research and development programme. In addition, the Medical Research Council (MRC), which receives most of its income via grant-in-aid from the Office of Science and Technology in the Department of Trade and Industry, funds medical research as part of the Government's funding of the science and engineering base.
Management of much of the research supported by the NHS research and development levy is devolved, and details of expenditure at project level are not collected routinely by the Department. During 1997–98, the Department invested the following amount on directly commissioned research: £187,000 on lung cancer; £29,000 on prostate cancer; £832,000 on breast cancer and £197,000 on bowel cancer.
During 1997–98, the MRC spent £691,000 on lung cancer; £18,000 on prostate cancer; £3,328,000 on breast cancer and £1,469,000 on bowel cancer. The MRC's figures relate to research specifically into these named cancers, and research which has been classified as being undertaken in one of these sites may well have implications in another and vice versa. As a guide, the MRC spent £13.2 million on cancer in 1994–95.
652WStudies in cancer should be viewed in the context of a large body of basic MRC research which underpins, and is of some relevance, to them. This includes the study of molecules and cells (£64.5 million in 1997–98), genetics and health (£52.4 million) and infections and immunity (£60.3 million).
In addition to the MRC's funding of the specified cancers, it is also supporting 10 trials, details of which are listed. These trials are co-ordinated by the MRC cancer trials office (CTO), which supports about 30 trials at any one time. Costs cannot be ascribed to individual studies, but, as a guide, the CTO's budget in 1997–98 was approximately £1 million.
MRC Trials
Breast cancer:
A randomised trial of epirubicin and cyclophosphamide vs. epirubicin and paclitaxel in metastatic breast cancerBowel cancer:
A randomised trial of intravenous versus intrahepatic arteria 5-FU and leucovorin for colorectal liver metastasesA randomised trial comparing 2 durations and 3 systemic chemotherapy regimens in the palliative treatment of advanced colorectal cancerLung cancer:
The Big Lung Trial: a randomised trial of cisplatin-based chemotherapy for all patients with non-small cell lung cancer;A randomised trial of supportive treatment with or without immediate thoracic radiotherapy in the prevention and palliation of symptoms in inoperable NSCLC;A randomised trial of pre-operative chemotherapy versus radiotherapy in patients with stage IIIA NSCLC;A randomised trial of ifosfamide, carboplatin and etoposide with mid-cycle vincristine (VICE) vs. standard practice chemotherapy in patients with SCLC and good performance status;A randomised trial of surgical resection with or without pre-operative chemotherapy in patients with operable NSCLC;Prostate cancer:
A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial of adjuvant oral sodium clodronate in patients commencing or responding to initial hormone therapy for metastatic adenocarcinoma comparing time to symptomatic bone progression;A randomised trial of high dose therapy in localised cancer of the prostate using conformal radiotherapy techniques.Project details of work directly funded by the Department or supported through the NHS research and development levy can be found on the National Research Register (NRR). This is available in the Library and most medical libraries on CD Rom, and on the Internet: http://www.doh.gov.uk/nrr.htm. The NRR also contains many details of projects/trials funded by the MRC and other funders.