The future of advanced cancer therapies in Ireland
HPP brought together Irish experts to identify the most pressing barriers to patient access to advanced cancer therapies and explore opportunities to address them.
Context
Advanced cancer therapies, including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy and radioligand therapy (RLT), are transforming outcomes for people with cancer. However, in Ireland, access to these highly specialised therapies is limited, uneven and often delayed.
Ireland faces rising cancer incidence and mortality as well as persistent delays in access to innovative cancer medicines. Even when these therapies are approved at European level, Irish patients cannot benefit due to slow and fragmented health technology assessment and reimbursement processes, workforce shortages, limited infrastructure, and unclear national governance. These systemic barriers mean that innovation is arriving without the system-readiness to integrate it effectively.
While progress has been made in some areas, such as the establishment of a national CAR-T service, access to RLT remains particularly constrained. Services are fragmented, data to inform planning are limited, and patients’ access can depend more on geography, system capacity and personal circumstances than on clinical need. Without proactive planning, Ireland risks widening inequities and exacerbating long‑term inefficiencies in cancer care.
Project resources
What we’ve achieved
HPP gathered national experts at an in‑person roundtable in Dublin in March 2026. Clinicians, policymakers, researchers and patient representatives from Ireland worked collaboratively to highlight the system’s biggest barriers and identify the policy-level changes required to overcome them. The discussions were strengthened by targeted desk research and guided by HPP’s Radioligand Therapy Readiness Assessment Framework, enabling a comprehensive review of governance, regulation and reimbursement, identified patient need, service provision and health information.
The work directly shaped a policy‑focused narrative that set out clear, actionable recommendations to improve access to advanced cancer therapies in Ireland. The document provides a practical roadmap for policymakers and health system leaders to strengthen national leadership, redesign pathways, expand workforce and infrastructure, and build the data foundations required to support future‑ready cancer care. It was launched by key stakeholders at the All-Island Cancer Summit on the 19 May 2026.
This project builds on our previous work in radioligand therapy and health system readiness.
Key partners and stakeholders
HPP would like to thank the following experts, who contributed their time and expertise to this project:
- Larry Bacon, Consultant Haematologist, St James’s Hospital
- Laura Brady, CEO, Irish Platform for Patient Organisations, Science & Industry (IPPOSI)
- Colm Burke, TD for Cork North-Central; Deputy-Chairperson of Joint Committee on Health
- Dr Mathilde Colombié, Consultant Nuclear Medicine Physician, St. Vincent’s University Hospital
- Dr Jennie Cooke, Principal Physicist, Children’s Health Ireland, Irish Association of Physicists in Medicine (Diagnostic
- Radiology)
- Dr Austin Craig, Radiopharmacy Site Manager, Alliance Medical Radiopharmacy Ireland Ltd
- Prof. Paddy Gilligan, Chief Physicist, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital; Associate Clinical Professor, University College Dublin; past president, European Federation of Organisations for Medical Physics (EFOMP); President Elect, European Alliance for Medical Radiation Protection Research (EURAMED)
- Dr Elaine Harris, Lecturer, Technological University Dublin
- James Hayes, Member, UCAN Cancer Committee
- Margaret Hayes, Member, UCAN Cancer Committee
- Dr Martin Higgins, Consultant Radiation Oncologist, Cork University Hospital/University College Cork Cancer Centre
- Tom Hope, Prostate Cancer Ireland (formerly Men Against Cancer (MAC))
- Anne-Marie Howe, Clinical Project Manager, Cancer Trials Ireland
- Dr Nicola Hughes, Consultant Radiologist, St. Vincent’s University Hospital
- John Lahart, TD for Dublin South-West
- Susan Maguire, Chief Medical Physicist, Mater Private Network
- Ann McCann, PhD, Medical Physics Expert (MPE), St. Vincent’s University Hospital
- Mark McDonnell, Former Chair, NET Patient Network Ireland; Steering Committee Member, SPARC Europe
- Martin O’Connell, Consultant Radiologist and Consultant Nuclear Medicine Physician, Mater University Hospital, Mater Private Hospital and UCD; Chair Irish Nuclear Medicine Association
- Dr Aileen O’Shea, Consultant Radiologist, Department of Radiology, Beaumont Hospital
- Miriam Staunton, Chair & Co-Founder, United Cancer Advocates Network (UCAN) Ireland
- Martin Sweeney, Secretary & Co-Founder, UCAN Ireland
- Justin Winters, Chair, NET Patient Network Ireland
Project funding
This project was led by HPP and supported by Novartis. HPP led all required research, drafting and editing of outputs, which have been reviewed by stakeholders from the event and Novartis for accuracy. All outputs are evidence-based and non-promotional.