Eastern Daily Press (KC) 12-Apr-08
From Kidney Cancer Resource
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OAP must spend nest-egg on cancer drug Sutent....
by: MARK NICHOLLS
A Norfolk pensioner is having to spend £3,000 a month of his retirement nest-egg to fund cancer drugs that could prolong his life because health chiefs do not regard the treatment as “cost effective.”
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David Blackett must spend his savings!
David Blackett, who has kidney and lung cancer, has been offered the drug Interferon on the NHS which, experts say, give him a 14pc chance of survival. However, his consultant at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has indicated that it would be better for the 65-year-old to take the drug Sutent, which could improve his chances of survival to 40 or 50pc.
But because Sutent is not available on the NHS - and not considered a cost-effective treatment by Norfolk Primary Care Trust (now known as NHS Norfolk) - Mr Blackett has to pay for the treatment himself.
The nine four-week cycles of treatment he needs over the year will set him back £27,000, which will come from his retirement payout after leaving the RG Carter construction group at Bury St Edmunds last September.
Mr Blackett, from Bunwell, near Attleborough, takes 37.5mg capsules of the drug - an ingestible form of chemotherapy - although it does have significant side-effects.
He said: “The drug will not cure me; it will not kill the cancer in my kidneys but it might do it for my lungs. But it will hold it at bay.
“Without this drug, at best I have two years and at worst I will not be celebrating Christmas. With this drug, I possibly have five years so long as my body can tolerate me keeping taking this drug.”
Mr Blackett wants to see the NHS and the drug regulatory body, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), pressurised into funding the drug, which he believes would benefit as many as 20 people in Norfolk.
His family and friends are shocked that he has to pay for a treatment that will give him a better chance of survival and have organised a protest cycle ride from Tasburgh, near Long Stratton, to Westminster to raise the profile of the issue and to raise funds for the James Whale Kidney Cancer Trust.
Mr Blackett's son James, who lives at Tasburgh, said: “My father retired in September and was diagnosed with kidney cancer and secondary lung cancer, though he has never been a smoker. It was a huge blow for the family but we are quite positive.”
After being given the choice of treatments, Mr Blackett opted to pay for Sutent. James added: “My father cannot really afford £3,400 a month. The only thing in his favour is that he has recently retired, but the money he got on retirement is now being used to try to save his own life.”
There is still one glimmer of hope: that Mr Blackett's treatment may be paid for by Bupa under his wife Sue's private health insurance plan.
James said: “Friends from the village talked about his situation and they were so appalled that my father had worked for 40 years but was now spending his retirement money saving his own life that they decided to do a charity cycle ride.
“We want to highlight that there are these drugs out there but they are not funded by the NHS.”
The event leaves Tasburgh on May 31 and arrives at Westminster on June 2. The party will be met by supporters and by South Norfolk Conservative MP Richard Bacon.
James added: “Whatever the outcome, my father wants to spend his time fighting for people who perhaps cannot afford this treatment.
“He can afford the drug for six to eight months, but if Bupa do not come up trumps after that we do not know what will happen.”
Mr Bacon, who has made representations to NHS Norfolk on Mr Blackett's behalf, said there was often a suspicion that Nice guidelines were being used to delay prescription of more expensive drugs, though he also acknowledged it was a difficult process with pharm-aceutical companies inventing new - and more costly - treatments all the time. However, he noted that the NHS nationally was poised to under-spend by £1.8bn and that Norfolk PCT, which had a £50m debt last year, was now balancing its books.
The MP said: “This is a difficult situation, but the evidence seems to be that Sutent is highly effective and you have to do what you can for individual patients.”
NHS Norfolk pointed out that Sutent was not approved by Nice and not expected to be until January 2009.
A spokesman added that its Exceptional and Low Priority Treatments Panel had considered and reviewed all the documentation presented on Sutent to date but, based on evidence, “decided that it is still not a cost effective treatment.”
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