Patients with kidney cancer are being denied two new drugs that could potentially prolong their lives because they are thought to be too expensive. Kidney cancer is found in 6,600 people a year and has a death rate of more than 50%. Both new drugs have been licenced for use in Britain and work to [...]
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Patients with kidney cancer are being denied two new drugs that could potentially prolong their lives because they are thought to be too expensive. Kidney cancer is found in 6,600 people a year and has a death rate of more than 50%. Both new drugs have been licenced for use in Britain and work to dramatically shrink some tumours and make some disappear completely. But without guidelines by the NHS on whether they can fund these drugs or not, Health Trusts are not sure what they can do. Patients requiring treatment have to rely on individual Health Trusts to decide if they can afford to offer this treatment to them or see a private doctor. As the treatment costs approximately £2,500 a month some people have been forced to fund it themselves at the cost of their homes and savings. Trials of both Sutent and Nexavar have shown a prolonged life span in patients who, because of the nature of their cancer, usually die quite quickly after diagnosis. They work by starving the tumour of its blood supply. Now it is up to the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to decide if they are going to draw up a policy on whether trusts should fund these treatments. So far they have not even decided on a timetable for assessing them!
Written by WorldsBest on February 26th, 2007 with
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