Select Committee on Science and Technology Appendices to the Minutes of Evidence


APPENDIX 5

Memorandum submitted by the Royal Marsden

  I have been asked by my Chief Executive to respond to your recent letter on the follow up to this important Report. Thank you for inviting us to comment on progress in implementing the recommendations of the House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee. We supported the recommendations in the Report and would like to make the following comments on progress:

THE RESEARCH BASE, REVIEW AND FUNDING OF THE NHS CANCER PLAN

  We welcome the setting up of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) and are pleased to see that funding has been made available for the establishment the National Cancer Research Network (NCRN) and the National Translational Cancer Research Network (NTRAC). In particular, the funding made available for prostate cancer research and the establishment of NCRI Prostate Cancer Collaboratives will strengthen the research effort in this important area.

PROGRESS IN DEVELOPING THE VIRTUAL NATIONAL CANCER RESEARCH INSTITUTE

  In reply to your specific query, it is our understanding that the Cancer Research Funders Forum has been transformed into the NCRI. However, much work remains to be done on how the NCRI and its Steering Group intend to process and prioritise the funding of clinical research proposals coming from the NCRI Tumour Study Groups and elsewhere.

CANCER REGISTRATION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR DATA PROTECTION

  The recommendation was made that legislation should be introduced to make cancer registration a legal requirement, but the 1998 Data Protection Act has caused concerns over the use of this data. While we welcomed the recommendation that the advisory group on patient confidentiality should address these issues, it is not clear that much progress has been made towards the resolution of the issues surrounding access to cancer registry data for legitimate research purposes and the timetable proposed for such resolution.

THE NEW CANCER RESEARCH NETWORKS

  We welcome the funding and establishment of the National Cancer Research Network and will benefit from being involved in the establishment of one of the first wave of Networks. The setting up of the first wave was slightly delayed, but now that recruiting of staff is underway and the National Cancer Research Institute has been set up and is beginning to approve trials, barriers to recruitment to trials can begin to be identified. In those Networks that are established the NCRN has begun to raise the profile of cancer clinical trials, but a lot of further progress must be made in order to address the levels of recruitment to these trials so that patient outcomes can be improved.

  A key issue will be how effectively research funding actually reaches the Cancer Research Networks and the clinical research Centres/Units within them.

Dr Simon Dyer

Clinical R&D Manager

5 December 2001


 
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