3. What action will the Welsh Government take to improve treatment of cancer in Wales in the next twelve months? OAQ(5)0076(FM)

For example, we will continue to progress the £200 million programme business case for transforming cancer services in the south-east of Wales, we’ll develop our plans for a new treatment fund and publish an updated all-Wales cancer delivery plan.

Thank you very much for the reply, First Minister. Cancer Research UK has said there has been a dramatic rise in the number of people diagnosed with the most serious form of skin cancer in Wales in the last 40 years. The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence has approved a pair of cancer drugs, ipilimumab and nivolumab—these are the two medicines—for use in England, which, when used in combination, shrank the most aggressive or deadly type of skin cancer by 69 per cent. Could the First Minister advise the Assembly if this therapy and drug will be made available in Wales as soon as possible?

The Member talks of malignant melanoma, a disease that I unfortunately know well, and it took my mother’s life. It is indeed a hugely invasive cancer; if it spreads, there is no way—or, hitherto, there’s been no way—of stopping it. With the new treatments fund, as soon as a drug is approved then the money will be available to roll out that drug across the whole of Wales.

First Minister, we know the importance of healthy lifestyle choices in reducing the risks of cancer, so it’s good to see from the results of the Welsh health survey 2015 that the number of smokers in Wales has decreased from 26 per cent to 19 per cent of the population, also meaning that the Welsh Government has exceeded its target for reducing smoking rates. The revisited public health Bill offers another opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles and to raise awareness of screening in tackling cancer. Will the Welsh Government consider this when it brings forward its fresh legislation?

Indeed. I mean, the public health Bill is designed to tackle the underlying causes of ill health. We know that smoking still persists as one of the major causes of death and ill health in Wales, and that’s why we want to proceed as quickly as possible with a public health Bill, and I’ll give more details about that in the legislative statement later this afternoon.

First Minister, the most exciting development in the treatment of cancer in recent times has been the development of stratified medicines, where treatment is personalised to the patient based upon the genetic makeup of their particular cancer. I was deeply concerned to learn that, in Wales, we test for just two genetic markers. Will your Government develop a stratified medicine strategy and ensure that the all-Wales genetic service is equipped to test for all genetic markers in cancer patients?

It is true that the big change in cancer treatment over the next decade will be specific treatment for those with particular DNA. We are hugely fortunate in the sense that we have the Wales cancer genetic centre—Nobel prize-winning knowledge. I’ve certainly been there and they are developing more tests as they come along. At the moment, of course, there are particular tests that are used. There are others that will develop over the course of time and make it far easier for treatment to be tailored to the individual. For example, there are some drugs that are known to be damaging to some people on a chance of 300, 400 or 500 to 1, but, until now, there have been no tests to make sure that a particular person is not one of those people who could be particularly badly affected by that drug. As these tests develop, more and more people will have the chance of a better outcome.