Health group rejects cancer patient's plea for wonder drug

6:02am Tuesday 6th March 2007

HEALTH bosses have turned down an appeal by a North-East cancer patient who needs a wonder drug that could extend her life.

Kathleen Devonport, 63, from Chilton, near Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, has advanced kidney cancer and has been told by her NHS consultant that recently developed drug Sutent could prolong her life.

Because the drug has not been approved by the NHS watchdog the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), Mrs Devonport asked County Durham Primary Care Trust (PCT) to consider her request.

But yesterday, Mrs Devonport was told that the trust's Exceptional Cases Committee had turned down her request, "after considering the evidence about the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the treatment", as well as specific clinical information about the patient.

Last night, Mrs Devonport's husband, Ray, 65, pledged to make another appeal to buy time for his wife of more than 40 years, despite the setback.

He said: "It is very disappointing, especially after our GP and consultant faxed letters to the PCT.

"With all the cutbacks going on across the NHS, it makes you think this is more about saving money than anything else."

The decision by the trust committee, made up of doctors and other NHS professionals, goes against a recent recommendation by the UK's leading kidney cancer experts, revealed exclusively last week in The Northern Echo, that Sutent and a similar drug called Nexavar should be made routinely available for the treatment of advanced kidney cancer.

Both drugs are widely available in the US and Europe.

The couple are due to see a cancer specialist privately later this week to discuss obtaining Sutent at a cost of about £30,000 a year.

Dr Pat Stanton, a Birmingham University academic who represents the Kidney Cancer UK charity on the National Cancer Research Network's Renal Cancer Group, said: "The evidence is mounting that Sutent can keep people alive for longer than was expected. Why shouldn't this drug be available on the NHS?"

Dr Tricia Cresswell, director of public health for the PCT, on behalf of the PCT's Exceptional Cases Committee, said: "As with all appeals to the Exceptional Cases Committee, the committee fully considered the evidence about the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the treatment in question, in addition to the specific clinical information about any individual patient before reaching a decision."