CANCER specialists in Oxfordshire have welcomed a move which could see patients have access to breakthrough treatments not yet available in Britain.

The move would see those who have exhausted every option be offered a last chance by trialling drugs a year before doctors are usually allowed to prescribe them.

Prime Minister David Cameron announced the plans yesterday.

He said he wants to speed up the time it takes between a life-extending treatment being invented and it being given to the most ill patients.

At present, drugs are only usually prescribed after they have been approved by Nice, the NHS drugs licensing body, following a lengthy process.

The early access scheme would mean certain patients and their doctors are given full details of the new drugs, including any potential side effects, and allowed to make their own informed decision.

If they agree to certain terms, the patients would be given the drug free on the NHS.

Sue Long, a cancer support specialist based at the Churchill Hospital, said more options were better for the patient.

She said: “I think anything that gives a patient hope can only be a good thing. I would have to see more detail, but to me this sounds like a positive step.”

Oxfordshire cancer drug campaigner Clive Stone was unavailable to comment.