Campaigners have reacted angrily after health bosses refused to overturn their policy of only prescribing a life-extending drug to kidney cancer patients in exceptional circumstances.

In a letter to Clive Stone, chairman of Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients, Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust chief executive Andrea Young said it had concluded it would “not be appropriate” to review its policy on Sunitinib before the NHS’s drug-rationing body – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence – issued final guidance next year.

To date, only three out of 25 requests for the drug from kidney cancer sufferers in the county have been successful.

Mr Stone, 60, from Freeland, near Witney, wrote to Ms Young calling for the PCT to reconsider its interim policy “immediately” after the PCT agreed to pay for sufferer Andy Crabb’s treatment.

He said: “Patients have died having been denied Sunitinib, which is globally considered to be the first-line treatment for advanced kidney cancer.

“We ask you to please show some humanity and enable the drug to be immediately made available.”

In her response, Ms Young said she fully understood and sympathised with kidney cancer patients wanting the drug, but said the PCT would not provide funding, as agreed at a meeting on October 29.

However, she added: “In view of new research evidence and a different threshold of cost-effectiveness for ‘end-of-life’ treatments, Nice may change its current recommendations and conclude that NHS funding for Sunitinib should be approved.”

Nice – which decides whether drugs should be paid for by the NHS – issued draft guidance to PCTs in August ruling Sunitinib too expensive. It is expected to issue final guidance on the drug in March.

After months of campaigning, Mr Stone said he felt optimistic for the first time Nice might overturn its initial judgement.

But he said for many patients time was of the essence.

He added: “Further delays are just not acceptable.”

Kidney cancer sufferer Elke Williams, 65, from Witney, agreed.

She said she had been refused Sunitinib twice.

She said: “Time is running out.

“Sunitinib may not be a cure, but it gives you the opportunity to live longer. It’s about quality of life.”

Two weeks ago, Mr Crabb, 50, became the third patient in the county to win the right to receive Sunitinib on the NHS.

The father-of-three, from Abingdon, had been forced to pay £3,300 every six weeks for six months to receive the drug before he finally overturned the PCT’s refusal.

Both Mr Crabb and Stephen Dallison, 35, from Oxford, who also suffers from kidney cancer and successfully appealed for the drug, said it had given them a new lease of life.

Sunitinib prevents cancer cells from growing while restricting oxygen to existing tumours.

It is licensed for use in the UK but only 27 out of 152 PCTs routinely fund the drug, creating a so-called postcode lottery.