From the Telegraph, August 7, 2008:

Patient groups said the decision, announced today by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), would condemn many sufferers of kidney cancer to an “early death”.

The four prohibited medicines include Sutent, which can prolong life in kidney cancer patients by up to two years. The draft guidance also rejects Avastin, Nexavar and Torisel.

Nice said the drugs were too expensive, at about £24,000 a year per patient, for the benefits they offered and would mean the health service was less able to afford more cost-effective drugs for other illnesses. However, the decision reignites the debate around how the NHS prioritises which drugs are approved for use.

It comes just a week after Andrew Dillon, the chief executive of Nice, said smokers and the obese should not be denied NHS medication because of their lifestyle.

Following Nice’s latest decision, one surgeon said there would be no point in accepting kidney cancer patients if he was not able to prescribe Sutent because so few respond to other treatments.

Prof John Wagstaff, from the South West Wales Cancer Institute, in Swansea, said: “The possibility that we clinicians may be prevented from offering Sutent to our patients is an outrage.

“This decision will mean that the UK will have the poorest survival figures [for the cancer] in Europe.”

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