Setback for cancer campaigners (From Oxford Mail)

Setback for cancer campaigners

9:30am Friday 26th November 2010 in Oxford

CANCER campaigners suffered a setback after another potentially life-extending treatment was deemed too expensive for NHS prescriptions.

Today, kidney cancer patients will be told Everolimus, which could give an extra three months’ life, is not good enough value for money.

After considering additional evidence, drug-rationing body the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is expected to announce its second appraisal on the drug, which is used as a second line treatment for renal cancer.

Oxford Mail columnist and cancer campaigner, Clive Stone, from Freeland, near Witney, said the decision made him ‘really mad’.

He campaigned successfully to make Sunitinib, a first-line treatment for cancer, available on the NHS.

Everolimus is the next option for people when Sunitinib no longer works.

Mr Stone said: “We want sequential drugs, that is what it is all about.”

Drug company Novartis has already agreed to lower the price of Everolimus from more than £5,000 for one cycle of treatment to £2,822 per patient.