Four new drugs to treat advanced kidney cancer have been rejected by the government's drugs advisory body as too expensive for use by the NHS, various news sources report today.
Although the drugs were acknowledged to provide "substantial benefits" and were judged to provide "significant gains" in survival, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has refused approval on the grounds that the NHS cannot afford to provide them to patients.
More than 7,000 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer annually in the UK, with around 1,700 of those diagnosed with advanced kidney cancer.
The drugs cost between £20,000 to £35,000 a year per patient, but even at the upper end of this scale the total cost of providing the drugs to all the 1,700 patients for a year - at just under £60m - is a tiny fraction of the £115m every week the government lavishes on the audit-failing EU. Priorities?
The decision to issue draft guidance rejecting Sutent (sunitinib), Avastin (bevacizumab), Nexavar (sorafenib) and Torisel (temsirolimus) has outraged charities, kidney specialists and campaigners.
Experts have reacted angrily to the decision, saying it left them with little option for treating patients.
Although there are treatments available, none of them "cure" advanced renal cell carcinoma or cancer that has spread from the initial tumour. But they can help extend a patients' life by around five to six months.
Quoted in the Times report, John Wagstaff, an honorary consultant in medical oncology at the South Wales Cancer Institute in Swansea and director of the Wales Cancer Trials Network, said there was “no point” in him accepting referrals for people with advanced kidney cancer because about 75 per cent of them “do not gain any real benefit” from interferon. The only other option, he said, was to make patients comfortable in their last months.
The draft guidelines for England and Wales, which are subject to appeal, recommended people already on the drugs should be able to continue therapy.
In the BBC's report, Pat Hanlon from Kidney Cancer UK said that the drugs provide a 'considerable benefit' and Professor Peter Johnson, from Cancer Research UK, said they had shown a small but definite improvement in an illness where there are few alternative treatments.
It's easy to cast NICE as the villian of the piece, but in trying to get the best out of limited resources they have a very difficult job to do.
In reality, in agreeing to pay an unjustifiable 63% extra to the undeserving EU, it is the government and the MPs who voted to approve that deal who are solely to blame when there's no public money left for life-prolonging drugs to be made available on the NHS.
Showing posts with label sutent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sutent. Show all posts
Thursday, 7 August 2008
Friday, 4 July 2008
Salford: Woman fights for NHS cancer drug
A woman terminally ill with kidney cancer could now be given a drug which could prolong her life, after a High Court ruling - reports ITV News.
Sutent has not yet been approved by the government and is not automatically available on the NHS.
Jean Murphy, a 62-year-old grandmother from Salford, had twice been denied the drug by Salford Primary Care Trust on the grounds that it is too expensive.
Dr Mike Burrows from the trust said before the ruling: "We have a limited amount of resources and have to make decisions on which treatments we are prepared to fund and which we cannot fund. We have to use health economics to support those decisions."
Ruling on the case, Mr Justice Burnett said the Trust's commissioning panel had failed to consider Mrs Murphy's application "in the round", and to take into account her day-to-day responsibility for caring for her husband who has a heart condition and diabetes.
This is yet another example of how the abject waste of £115 million a week paid to the audit-failing European Union - an unjustifiable 63% increase on the annual amount Britain paid between 2001-06 - is causing real suffering and shortfalls in essential public services.
In particular, Salford MP Hazel Blears needs to explain why she voted to approve paying this extra money to the EU while her local hospital clearly cannot provide services her constituents need, and blame a "limited amount of resources".
With public finances tightening, we can no longer afford to hand over so much money to the European Union. Especially as the "majority" of the EU's spending has not been approved by auditors for 13 years running, and there are so many reports of waste and fraud - going on even within EU institutions themselves.
Evidence continues to grow that it's time to Stop the Cheques to the EU.
Sutent has not yet been approved by the government and is not automatically available on the NHS.
Jean Murphy, a 62-year-old grandmother from Salford, had twice been denied the drug by Salford Primary Care Trust on the grounds that it is too expensive.
Dr Mike Burrows from the trust said before the ruling: "We have a limited amount of resources and have to make decisions on which treatments we are prepared to fund and which we cannot fund. We have to use health economics to support those decisions."
Ruling on the case, Mr Justice Burnett said the Trust's commissioning panel had failed to consider Mrs Murphy's application "in the round", and to take into account her day-to-day responsibility for caring for her husband who has a heart condition and diabetes.
This is yet another example of how the abject waste of £115 million a week paid to the audit-failing European Union - an unjustifiable 63% increase on the annual amount Britain paid between 2001-06 - is causing real suffering and shortfalls in essential public services.
In particular, Salford MP Hazel Blears needs to explain why she voted to approve paying this extra money to the EU while her local hospital clearly cannot provide services her constituents need, and blame a "limited amount of resources".
With public finances tightening, we can no longer afford to hand over so much money to the European Union. Especially as the "majority" of the EU's spending has not been approved by auditors for 13 years running, and there are so many reports of waste and fraud - going on even within EU institutions themselves.
Evidence continues to grow that it's time to Stop the Cheques to the EU.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Kidney cancer man's drugs fight
A man with kidney cancer says he has been refused a drug that could save his life and is still waiting for treatment 18 months after being diagnosed - reports the BBC.
Jocelyn Hall, 60, of Tonna, Neath, is taking his local health board (LHB) to judicial review after it refused to pay for him to have the drug, Sunitinib.
Neath Port Talbot LHB said each case for the drug was reviewed individually.
Mr Hall was diagnosed with kidney cancer in September 2006, a fortnight after he gave his notice so he could retire after working in Neath's Metal Box can factory for 44 years.
Surgeons were unable to operate because his tumour had spread to other organs.
Mr Hall's oncologist at Swansea's Singleton Hospital, Professor John Wagstaff, said the drug treatment he wanted his patient to have cost £2,300 every six weeks.
He said: "I've got a number of patients in exactly the same situation, not just with Neath Port Talbot but with other LHBs in south west Wales.
"It's a continuing battle. If he does not get this drug, the only management available to him is to control his symptoms."
Mr Hall's sister, Rosemarie Snow, said: "He has worked all his life and paid into cancer research all his life and he's got nothing.
"The drugs won't cure him but they will help prolong his life. After he worked 44 years of his life, he wants to enjoy his retirement.
Kate Spall, who has become a patient support advocate since her mother died from a rare kidney cancer, said Mr Hall was the "most exceptional" of the more than 40 cases she had advised.
She said: "He has not treatment for nearly two years for terminal cancer. That is just unheard of.
"In Wales today, somebody has not had had one piece of active treatment. That's Third World. That's unbelievable."
A spokeswoman for Neath Port Talbot LHB said she could not comment on individual cases because of confidentiality.
But she said that the local health board took guidance from the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, which said the use of Sumitinib should not be supported in Wales.
Jocelyn Hall, 60, of Tonna, Neath, is taking his local health board (LHB) to judicial review after it refused to pay for him to have the drug, Sunitinib.
Neath Port Talbot LHB said each case for the drug was reviewed individually.
Mr Hall was diagnosed with kidney cancer in September 2006, a fortnight after he gave his notice so he could retire after working in Neath's Metal Box can factory for 44 years.
Surgeons were unable to operate because his tumour had spread to other organs.
Mr Hall's oncologist at Swansea's Singleton Hospital, Professor John Wagstaff, said the drug treatment he wanted his patient to have cost £2,300 every six weeks.
He said: "I've got a number of patients in exactly the same situation, not just with Neath Port Talbot but with other LHBs in south west Wales.
"It's a continuing battle. If he does not get this drug, the only management available to him is to control his symptoms."
Mr Hall's sister, Rosemarie Snow, said: "He has worked all his life and paid into cancer research all his life and he's got nothing.
"The drugs won't cure him but they will help prolong his life. After he worked 44 years of his life, he wants to enjoy his retirement.
Kate Spall, who has become a patient support advocate since her mother died from a rare kidney cancer, said Mr Hall was the "most exceptional" of the more than 40 cases she had advised.
She said: "He has not treatment for nearly two years for terminal cancer. That is just unheard of.
"In Wales today, somebody has not had had one piece of active treatment. That's Third World. That's unbelievable."
A spokeswoman for Neath Port Talbot LHB said she could not comment on individual cases because of confidentiality.
But she said that the local health board took guidance from the All Wales Medicines Strategy Group, which said the use of Sumitinib should not be supported in Wales.
Labels:
cancer,
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neath,
NHS funding,
port talbot,
sumitinib,
sutent,
wales
Friday, 10 August 2007
MP's back Wilson's drug plea
Two Manchester MPs are backing a campaign by music legend Anthony Wilson to persuade local health bosses to provide a pioneering cancer drug on the NHS - reports the Manchester Evening News.
Mr Wilson - known as `Mr Manchester' - was denied a new drug for kidney cancer called Sutent on the NHS and is now paying for the £3,500-a-month treatment with the help of friends.
Sutent has doubled the life expectancy of some patients in trials but is still being assessed for use across the NHS so individual health trusts are deciding on a case-by-case basis if they wish to fund it.
Two patients being treated alongside Mr Wilson at the Christie ARE receiving funding for the therapy because they live a few miles away in Cheshire, where a much higher proportion of patients are being funded.
Health bosses in Cumbria have also decided to fund the treatment for their patients, some of whom are cared for at Manchester's Christie Hospital.
Graham Stringer MP for Manchester Blackley and Tony Lloyd MP for Manchester Central have written to Manchester Primary Care Trust to ask them to pay for the drug until the Government watchdog decides whether Sutent should be provided nationally.
The letter reads: "We are writing to you following reports in the Manchester Evening News that a number of patients in Greater Manchester are not being allowed to be treated with the kidney cancer drug called Sutent, although we understand patients from Cumbria and Cheshire are receiving this treatment.
"We consider this to be completely unacceptable and would ask you to review this policy."
Health bosses say they have to make very difficult decisions in order to provide the best care for patients and have good procedures in place to look at the effectiveness of new drugs.
The M.E.N. has learned that in the last 16 months PCTs in Greater Manchester have turned down eight requests for Sutent backed by doctors at the Christie and approved one, while Central and East Cheshire PCT have turned down one patient and approved two.
Four people who were refused treatment with the new drugs on the NHS , including Mr Wilson, are paying privately.
He said: "I want to know what has happened to the 11 people who can't afford to pay for treatment.
"I want to know what their lives are like now, have they been sentenced to death by this decision? It is a scandal."
Manchester NHS Primary Care Trust, which has refused to pay for Mr Wilson's treatment, says there is not enough `demonstrable evidence to support the use of this drug in treating kidney cancer.'
But Prof Robert Hawkins, a kidney cancer expert from Christie, believes the refusals come down to cost - even though he estimates the total bill if Sutent was routinely available on the NHS would be £2m a year for Greater Manchester.
He said: "There is no doubt it would be available if it was cheap. I will now be able to prescribe Sutent to patients from Cumbria but not routinely to anyone else - which puts me as a doctor in a difficult position.
"I am delighted local MPs have asked the PCTs to look again at this issue. The PCTs in the north east looked at the best available new evidence and cost-effectiveness data taking full account of recent price reductions and accepted it was a cost-effective treatment. I would urge the Manchester PCTs to look again at this fuller information."
Tony Lloyd said: "If someone living a few metres over the border into Macclesfield can have this treatment but someone living in my constituency cannot, it can never be acceptable."
When the medical experts, in this case senior doctors from the Christie who are certainly regional experts and is some cases nationally and internationally renowned, recommend a treatment for a certain condition we have to take that seriously."
Graham Stringer said: "We are asking them to reconsider, this is not a maverick treatment, it is recommended by doctors and some patients are already being treated with it."
We contacted Manchester PCT but they said they were unable to comment on the letter because it raised issues involving health trusts across Greater Manchester.
Previously Shauna Dixon, clinical director for Oldham PCT, which is leading Greater Manchester cancer drug commissioning, said: "Every effort is made to make sure the best care is provided to patients.
"All NHS trusts give careful consideration to the very difficult decisions they make when they look at individual cases to make sure they safely meet their medical needs. A clear framework is used to ensure there is good evidence to demonstrate a drug is effective."
Mr Wilson - known as `Mr Manchester' - was denied a new drug for kidney cancer called Sutent on the NHS and is now paying for the £3,500-a-month treatment with the help of friends.
Sutent has doubled the life expectancy of some patients in trials but is still being assessed for use across the NHS so individual health trusts are deciding on a case-by-case basis if they wish to fund it.
Two patients being treated alongside Mr Wilson at the Christie ARE receiving funding for the therapy because they live a few miles away in Cheshire, where a much higher proportion of patients are being funded.
Health bosses in Cumbria have also decided to fund the treatment for their patients, some of whom are cared for at Manchester's Christie Hospital.
Graham Stringer MP for Manchester Blackley and Tony Lloyd MP for Manchester Central have written to Manchester Primary Care Trust to ask them to pay for the drug until the Government watchdog decides whether Sutent should be provided nationally.
The letter reads: "We are writing to you following reports in the Manchester Evening News that a number of patients in Greater Manchester are not being allowed to be treated with the kidney cancer drug called Sutent, although we understand patients from Cumbria and Cheshire are receiving this treatment.
"We consider this to be completely unacceptable and would ask you to review this policy."
Health bosses say they have to make very difficult decisions in order to provide the best care for patients and have good procedures in place to look at the effectiveness of new drugs.
The M.E.N. has learned that in the last 16 months PCTs in Greater Manchester have turned down eight requests for Sutent backed by doctors at the Christie and approved one, while Central and East Cheshire PCT have turned down one patient and approved two.
Four people who were refused treatment with the new drugs on the NHS , including Mr Wilson, are paying privately.
He said: "I want to know what has happened to the 11 people who can't afford to pay for treatment.
"I want to know what their lives are like now, have they been sentenced to death by this decision? It is a scandal."
Manchester NHS Primary Care Trust, which has refused to pay for Mr Wilson's treatment, says there is not enough `demonstrable evidence to support the use of this drug in treating kidney cancer.'
But Prof Robert Hawkins, a kidney cancer expert from Christie, believes the refusals come down to cost - even though he estimates the total bill if Sutent was routinely available on the NHS would be £2m a year for Greater Manchester.
He said: "There is no doubt it would be available if it was cheap. I will now be able to prescribe Sutent to patients from Cumbria but not routinely to anyone else - which puts me as a doctor in a difficult position.
"I am delighted local MPs have asked the PCTs to look again at this issue. The PCTs in the north east looked at the best available new evidence and cost-effectiveness data taking full account of recent price reductions and accepted it was a cost-effective treatment. I would urge the Manchester PCTs to look again at this fuller information."
Tony Lloyd said: "If someone living a few metres over the border into Macclesfield can have this treatment but someone living in my constituency cannot, it can never be acceptable."
When the medical experts, in this case senior doctors from the Christie who are certainly regional experts and is some cases nationally and internationally renowned, recommend a treatment for a certain condition we have to take that seriously."
Graham Stringer said: "We are asking them to reconsider, this is not a maverick treatment, it is recommended by doctors and some patients are already being treated with it."
We contacted Manchester PCT but they said they were unable to comment on the letter because it raised issues involving health trusts across Greater Manchester.
Previously Shauna Dixon, clinical director for Oldham PCT, which is leading Greater Manchester cancer drug commissioning, said: "Every effort is made to make sure the best care is provided to patients.
"All NHS trusts give careful consideration to the very difficult decisions they make when they look at individual cases to make sure they safely meet their medical needs. A clear framework is used to ensure there is good evidence to demonstrate a drug is effective."
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