PROSTATE cancer patients in England are calling for two drugs to become routinely available on the NHS after they were approved for use in Scotland.
Men in England can currently apply to the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) for the treatments, abiraterone and radium 223. From next month, however, radium 223 will not be available from the fund and abiraterone is only guaranteed until next March.
Both drugs were last week approved for routine use in the NHS in Scotland by the Scottish Medicines Consortium, regardless of whether patients have already had chemotherapy.
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), the equivalent body in England, initially rejected abiraterone for men who have not had chemotherapy but is now reconsidering its decision. A ruling by Nice on radium 223 is expected in January but, even if approved, it would only be given to those who have had chemotherapy. About 60% do not have chemotherapy.
Hugh Gunn, from Tackle, a prostate cancer campaign group, said: “While this news is very positive for patients in Scotland, men and families in England and Wales are left with a bleak picture.”
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Studies show the drugs, suitable for prostate cancer that is not responding to hormone therapy and that has spread, can prolong life by at least four months. Abiraterone costs about £36,000 a year and radium 223 about £24,000. The NHS buys them at an undisclosed discount.
The row comes after it emerged that docetaxel, a drug that could give an extra two years of life, is being denied to English men with prostate cancer until their disease has relapsed but is given to Scottish men earlier.