Part of 1. 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 15 November 2016.
First Minister, I’m sure you are aware that there’s been no progress in survival rates for pancreatic cancer during the last 40 years, despite the extraordinary leaps and bounds we’ve made in many other medicines and with many other conditions. Now, there’s currently a research project collating samples from six hospitals across England and Wales, including Swansea’s Singleton, and it’s being undertaken to form a bank of tissue that will help scientists to study genetic changes in the cancerous cells. The aim will be to help detect cases more quickly, because, as we’ve just discussed, once you’ve been detected, it’s usually a bit too late. First Minister, would you take a look at this project and see if there’s any assistance that your Government could provide to support this project, either through our research facilities or in terms of funding to try to move this agenda forward?