Coventry Telegraph 01-May-09
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Treatment blow to Rugby kidney cancer patient
KIDNEY cancer patients and leading specialists have slammed a proposal to stop providing three life-lengthening treatments on the NHS.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) is recommending that doctors stop prescribing Nexavar, Avastin and Torisel claiming the drugs aren’t value for money.
It suggests that only Sutent be supplied as the drug of choice for patients with terminal kidney cancer.
But not all patients respond to Sutent and the cost of buying the other three privately runs into thousands of pounds each month.
Colin Howe, aged 49, of Brownsover, in Rugby, who has had the disease for four years, said: “These drugs work in different ways and have proven to work and should all be available, but it all comes down to money.
“The people who are in this dilemma get to the point where they have to come up with the money or die, it’s as simple as that.”
Some experts believe the proposal will leave some patients at the mercy of the disease which affects 7,000 people in the UK each year.
Dr Thomas Powles, clinical senior lecturer at the Barts and London NHS Trust, said: “By approving only one of the four active drugs for renal cell carcinoma, NICE is pursuing a one size fits all policy for this complicated disease.”
NICE says the announcement is only a draft proposal which is now open to debate, but claims it must make difficult decisions.
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