Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 11:16 am on 24 July 2025.
Lord Kamall
Shadow Minister (Health and Social Care)
11:16,
24 July 2025
My Lords, I also thank the noble Lord, Lord Aberdare. I pay tribute to him and wish him a happy retirement. Only yesterday, he managed to offload two single-use defibrillators on to me as part of his clear-out. I thank him for introducing me to the world of defibrillators.
In speaking to charities that represent those with less survivable cancers, I am told that one reason why they are less survivable is that they are spotted only at stage 3 or stage 4—quite often too late to survive. However, there are a number of tests which could spot some of those cancers; for example, I was told about a trial of a breathalyser test that could identify certain biomarkers and has huge potential. As the APPG on Less Survivable Cancers says, that early diagnosis could save thousands of lives a year. What is the department doing to ensure that trials of such tests that are promising are conducted as quickly and as widely as possible so they can be introduced sooner if they prove safe and appropriate to identify these cancers?