Authority 'on back foot' over cancer treatment

5:33am Tuesday 19th August 2008

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A campaign group last night claimed the Government's drug licensing body was on the back foot over its decision not to fund a life-extending cancer drug on the NHS.

Kidney cancer patients in Oxfordshire are fighting to overturn the National Institute for Clinical Excellence's (Nice) draft guidelines ruling the drug Sunitinib too expensive.

The group - called Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients - is also lobbying Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust to prescribe the drug until Nice publishes its final decision in January.

Group spokesman and cancer sufferer Clive Stone, 60, said he believed Nice was feeling the heat after kidney cancer charities and patients across the country branded its guidelines a disgrace.

Mr Stone also dismissed comments made by Nice chairman Sir Michael Rawlins on Sunday that the high price of new drugs was to blame for its decision to ban the drug.

Mr Stone, from Freeland, near Witney, said: "Nice is on the back foot - it's starting to blame the drug companies. We feel we are winning."

PCTs have a legal obligation to provide treatments approved by Nice. But individual trusts decide whether to prescribe a particular drug while Nice makes its decision - often taking years.

Nice's chief executive Andrew Dillon told the BBC's Panorama last night the country's 152 PCTs should be consistent when deciding whether to make funds available for a drug during that interim period.

But Mr Stone said Mr Dillon's comments were irrelevant in light of Nice's draft guidelines on Sunitinib.

He said: "Health Secretary Alan Johnson said he wanted to end the postcode lottery' - Nice's recommendations end the postcode lottery at a stroke."

Twenty patients in the county have been denied Sunitinib because of Oxfordshire PCT's policy of only prescribing the drug in exceptional circumstances.

It is said to have one of the toughest policies in the country - only one patient, Stephen Dallison, 34, from Oxford, has successfully appealed against its decision not to fund the drug.

Mr Stone said: "We are one of the most highly taxed countries in the world, but we have one of the worst cancer survival rates. It's topsy-turvy."

Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients, which has organised a meeting with Tory leader and Witney MP David Cameron next week, wants people to continue to write to Oxfordshire PCT, the county's six MPs and Nice, opposing the guidelines.

The campaign group is also planning a trip to London to deliver members' letters to Nice by hand.

Nice declined to comment.

Campaigners have until Friday, August 29, to comment on Nice's draft guidance rejecting the drugs Avastin (Bevacizumab), Nexavar (Sorafenib), Torisel (Temsirolimus) and Sutent (Sunitinib), published earlier in the month.

To save navigating Nice's website, the Oxford Mail has tracked down the exact web address for readers to post comments. Click the link below.

Alternatively, cancer patients and campaigners can email Nice chief executive Andrew Dillon directly. His email address is andrew.dillon@nice.org.uk