Experts back plea for cancer drugs

9:26am Monday 26th February 2007

BRITAIN'S leading kidney cancer experts are backing calls for the NHS to lift restrictions on two new drugs, according to confidential documents obtained by The Northern Echo.

Last week, the Echo revealed that mother-of-three Kathleen Devonport, 63, from Chilton, County Durham - who has advanced kidney cancer - was calling for Tony Blair's help.

She has been told she might have only months to live unless she gets a drug, Sutent, on the NHS.

Primary care trusts (PCTs) in the North-East have claimed there is insufficient evidence to sanction funds for Sutent, despite evidence it has extended patients' lives by up to two years.

But The Northern Echo has obtained documents that suggest the NHS is out of step with the views of leading experts.

After reading Mrs Devonport's story, a source passed minutes of a private meeting to The Northern Echo, revealing that Britain's top kidney cancer specialists - all members of the National Cancer Research Network's (NCRN) Renal Cancer Group - believe Sutent and a similar drug, Nexavar, "represent a major advance" for patients with advanced kidney cancer.

The experts, drawn from elite cancer centres from across the UK, want to see Sutent, also known as sunitinib, and Nexavar, also known as sorafenib, made available to NHS patients.

The minutes, taken at a meeting of the group in November, show that the experts recently made this recommendation to UK cancer doctors.

Sutent is widely used in the US and Europe to prolong the lives of patients.

The drug has been licensed in the UK since last summer, but only about 50 people have been able to get it - the vast majority by paying up to £30,000 a year.

According to the Kidney Cancer UK charity, a "handful" of patients have managed to get Sutent on the NHS, and about 50 around the country are still trying - along with an unknown number trying to get Nexavar.

In the documents obtained by The Northern Echo, the experts state: "Existing standard therapies for metastatic renal cell cancer are inadequate. Both sorafenib and sunitinib significantly prolong progression-free survival in metastatic renal cell cancer and should now be made routinely available in the management of this disease in the UK."

Last night, Kathleen Devonport's husband, Ray, 65, said: "That is brilliant.

"How can the PCT continue to say the evidence is not good enough? Doesn't it make you wonder how the Government works?"

Ken Potts, 53, from Blyth, in Northumberland, also has advanced kidney cancer, and unless NHS bosses agree to allow his consultant to prescribe Sutent, his days are numbered.

Mr Potts' wife, Judith, 55, said: "How can they argue against that? It makes it more obvious that it is money that is making the difference - not the treatment of cancer."

The Devonports, who live in Prime Minister Tony Blair's constituency, appealed to the Prime Minister to help them get access to Sutent.

While Mr Blair expressed sympathy for Mrs Devonport's plight, he said that until the drugs watchdog, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (Nice), completes its appraisal of Sutent, it is up to primary care trusts to decide whether to prescribe the drug.

Nexavar is due to be reviewed by Nice, but Sutent is not in the queue of new drugs being assessed for possible NHS use.

The Devonports and the Potts now intend to use the NCRN's powerful recommendation to try to persuade their local PCTs to fund Sutent.

As a last resort, both families are considering ways of raising the sums needed to pay for the drug.

"The family has said it will help out and we have got some savings," said Mr Devonport.

"You don't want to let the last chance slip away."

Mrs Potts said: "Ken's parents are in their late 70s. They are trying to get into a rented pit cottage so they can sell their two-bedroomed house to help us raise the money for this drug.

"That is how dire things are."

Last week, Dr Tricia Cresswell, acting director of public health for County Durham Primary Care Trust, said the North-East and Cumbria Cancer Drug Approvals Group had dealt with a number of requests for the use of Sutent.

She said there was no firm evidence there would be an increased survival rate compared with the standard palliative treatment.

Reacting to the recommendations of the NCRN experts, a spokeswoman for the region's Cancer Drug Approval Group said their position was vindicated by results of a recent trial reported in last month's New England Journal of Oncology.

A Department of Health spokesman repeated its view that any licenced drugs can be prescribed by UK doctors, but it is up to the local NHS to decide whether they can be funded.

To sign the Kidney Cancer UK petition for NHS approval of kidney cancer drugs, visit http:// petitions.pm.gov.uk/