Taskforce to revolutionize pediatric cancer care, giving thousands of sick children faster access to new treatments, health minister announces
Children will get faster access to new treatments under plans to beat childhood cancer, the Health Secretary will announce today.
Victoria Atkins will launch a task force to improve the chances of survival of the world’s biggest killer under the age of 14.
Leading doctors and charities are joining forces with ministers to ‘drive progress’ and ensure people with the disease get the best care.
The task force will address issues specific to childhood cancer, such as more clinical trials involving youth and gentler treatments needed to help survivors live with fewer lifelong side effects.
In a win for the Mail, which has campaigned to improve childhood cancer outcomes, Ms Atkins pledged to ‘make childhood cancer care faster, easier and fairer for everyone’.
She said: ‘Discovering your child has cancer is some of the worst news a parent can receive. Thanks to remarkable advances in treatment and research, survival rates are higher than ever, but even then, life-altering consequences can remain.
‘This task force will help bring together leading experts and those who have dedicated their lives to the fight against cancer, to discuss how we can move faster and make progress in cancer care for children and young people.’
Health Minister Victoria Atkins will launch a task force to improve the survival rate of the world’s biggest killer under 14
Children will get faster access to new treatments under plans to beat childhood cancer (stock image)
Every day, at least a dozen families receive the unthinkable news that their child has cancer and may need life-changing treatment to survive.
It remains the leading cause of death from illness in young people in Britain, killing one in five of those diagnosed – around 500 per year.
While tremendous progress has been made in some childhood cancers, such as leukemia, others, such as sarcomas – rare cancers of the soft tissue – have a very poor prognosis.
The task force will focus on medical breakthroughs, such as genomic treatments, diagnosis and research.
It will be led by Dame Caroline Dinenage, a Tory MP who launched a campaign after being approached by her constituent, Charlotte Fairall, who lost her ten-year-old daughter Sophie to sarcoma in 2021.
It comes after cancer care suffered a double blow with warnings about rising deaths and poor progress in the fight against the disease.
Analysis from Cancer Research UK shows survival rates are improving at the slowest rate in half a century, while another study predicted deaths will rise by 50 percent in 25 years.