Sunday Times (KC) 24-Aug-08
From Kidney Cancer Resource
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Cancer drugs due a review
We are dismayed at the decision by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) on the rationing of drugs for patients with advanced kidney cancer.
Once again Nice has shown how poorly it assesses new cancer treatments. Its economic formulae are simply not suitable for addressing cost effectiveness in this area of medicine. Mean survivals obscure the fact that some patients will obtain prolonged benefit from these drugs.
It is essential that Nice gets its sums right. We have already seen distraught patients remortgaging their houses, giving up pensions and selling cars simply to buy drugs that are freely available to those using health services in countries of comparable wealth.
We now spend similar amounts to Europe on health generally and cancer care in particular, but less than two thirds of the European average on cancer drugs. It just can't be that everybody else around the world is wrong about access to innovative cancer care and the NHS right in rationing it so severely.
Britain is a leading contributor to global clinical cancer research. It is such a tragedy that this great success cannot be translated into modern treatment for all our patients.
We believe the time has come for a radical change in how the NHS makes rationing decisions for cancer.
Signed by 25 professors of cancer medicine, including:
Professor Karol Sikora London
Professor Jonathan Waxman London
Professor Adrian Harris Oxford
Professor David Cunningham London
Professor Nick James Birmingham
Professor Tim Eisen Cambridge
Professor Tim Illidge Manchester
Professor Hardev Pandha Surrey
Professor Will Steward Leicester
Professor Anthony Goldstone London
Professor Angus Dalgleish London
Professor Robert Leonard London
Professor Christian Ottensmeier Southampton
Professor Ian Kunkler Edinburgh
Professor Robert Hawkins Manchester
Professor Ian Smith London
Professor Hilary Calvert Newcastle
Professor Daniel Hochhauser London
Professor Gordon Rustin London
Professor Richard Begent London
Professor Nick Thatcher Manchester
Professor Victor Hoffbrand London
Professor Jane Apperley London
Professor John Wagstaff Swansea
Professor Robert Coleman Sheffield
Professor Martin Gore London
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