Dismay as healthcare chiefs react

9:35am Tuesday 27th February 2007

HEALTH service bosses in the region have insisted that there is insufficient evidence to give North-East cancer patients new "wonder drugs", despite a call by UK experts that the drugs be made routinely available on the NHS.

Yesterday, The Northern Echo revealed that the UK's foremost specialists in kidney cancer have recommended that new drugs Sutent and Nexavar should be made "routinely available" to NHS patients.

It follows international trials that have significantly extended the lives of patients.

Last night, a third kidney cancer patient in the region, retired postman John Hodgson, 75, from Ferryhill, County Durham, came forward to say he had been denied Sutent on the NHS.

Two other North-East patients - Kathleen Devonport, 63, from Chilton, County Durham, and Ken Potts, 53, from Blyth, Northumberland -have been told by their NHS consultants that they should try Sutent.

But in both cases, they were told the only option was to go private, and pay about £30,000 a year.

Despite the advice of the National Cancer Research Network's (NCRN) Renal Cancer Group, a spokeswoman from the North-East and Cumbria Cancer Drug Approvals Group, which decides which drugs are available to NHS patients in the region, said there was no firm evidence that Sutent was any better than existing therapies and that the evidence on Nexavar was inconclusive.

She also said that the group -made up of primary care trust officials, cancer specialists and other health professionals working in the field -was aware of the views of the NCRN experts.

The charity Kidney Cancer UK estimates that there are about 50 patients across the country who are trying to obtain Sutent on the NHS.

Mr Hodgson's wife, Madeleine, said her husband had been told that Sutent could help after his cancer spread from his kidneys into his lungs.

She said: "We have been told it could cost up to £4,000 a month to get this private.

"If there is any possibility that these drugs can help him, we need to try to get them on the NHS."

Mrs Hodgson said she would now press County Durham Primary Care Trust to fund Sutent.