The number of drugs available through the government¿s flagship Cancer Drugs Fund has now been cut from 50 to 27 by NHS England, a new body headed by Sir David Nicholson
The number of cancer treatments available to patients has been halved on a new national list.
The move – described as ‘alarming’ and ‘a step backwards’ by campaigners – could mean many new patients are unable to benefit from the Government’s flagship Cancer Drugs Fund.
The £200million-a-year idea, launched in April 2011, was intended to provide life-extending help for sufferers and has led to more than 25,000 patients in England getting drugs which are not available on the NHS because they are not approved by NICE, the rationing body.
But the number of drugs available through the fund has now been cut from 50 to 27 by NHS England.
This means the number of cancers that can be treated has been cut from 129 to 65.
Some of the drugs have been cut from the list because they have been given the go-ahead by NICE in recent months and can now be prescribed normally by doctors.
But other treatments no longer approved include the pioneering radiation therapy given to surgeon Becky Smith, who fought to get it used routinely on the NHS after forcing her health trust into a funding U-turn over treatment for liver tumours.
As a result, the treatment was approved by many regions making up the Cancer Drugs Fund.
But it emerged yesterday it has been omitted from a national list from NHS England, a new body headed by Sir David Nicholson, who has faced calls for his resignation over his role in the Staffordshire Hospital scandal.
Other treatments which have been removed from the list include a drug used for a wide range of blood cancers, as well as those used for leukaemia, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and brain cancer.
The blood cancer drug, Rituximab, was the fourth most frequently requested treatment through the Fund last year.
Andrew Wilson, chief executive of the Rarer Cancers Foundation, said: ‘This appears to be a clear step backwards for cancer patients in terms of access to drugs.
‘The list of cancer drugs which will be funded has been cut in half with no explanation. We are worried that this will restrict access to drugs which were previously routinely available.
‘The Government has questions to answer about this, and we will be writing to the Prime Minister to seek urgent clarification about this.’
Mr Wilson said he was concerned by the lack of transparency over how the new list was compiled.
‘Clinicians were supposed to be in the driving seat but the centralisation of this list suggests the opposite’ he added.
The Government’s aim, which was a Tory election pledge, was to enable NHS doctors to prescribe any drug if they believed a cancer patient could benefit.
But the new list has slashed treatments available to new patients, even when as many as four out of 10 regional panels had approved their use.
A form of internal radiotherapy called SIR-Spheres used where bowel cancer has spread to the liver has been axed, even though previously available in the majority of regions.
Around 500 patients a year could miss out as a result.
Other treatments which have been removed from the list include a drug used for a wide range of blood cancers, as well as those used for leukaemia, lung cancer, ovarian cancer and brain cancer
But Professor Peter Clark, head of the Cancer Drugs Fund, insisted patients would be better off, partly because some of the drugs dropped from the national list had been agreed for routine use.
Instead of having to get these drugs via the Cancer Drugs Fund with access that varied in different regions, doctors would be able to get them normally.
He said: ‘Many more patients are going to be able access these drugs from this week than could have done last week..
‘We have not been levelling down we’ve been levelling up.’ He said doctors could apply on behalf of individual patients if a drug was not on the fast-track national list, but was unable to say how long the process would take.
Dr Jamie Mills, Consultant Clinical Oncologist at Nottingham University Hospital said: ‘The expectations of clinicians are that new patients will be offered the same treatments as they would have been able to receive under the Cancer Drugs Fund.
‘It is simply unacceptable that patients are being denied these life-extending treatments.
‘The Cancer Drugs Fund is the only mechanism which ensures that NHS patients in England have routine access to cancer drugs and treatments and this must continue.
‘Any changes made must ensure that cancer patients continue to have access to drugs and treatments, including SIR-Spheres if recommended by their oncologist.’
Denied: The number of drugs available through the fund has now been cut from 50 to 27 by NHS England
Almost two thirds of cancer treatments considered by Nice (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence) are rejected.
The future of the Cancer Drugs Fund has not been guaranteed beyond next January, when an estimated 16,000 patients could lose out each year.
The ‘alarming’ move has been condemned by a group of MPs led by Alan Meale (Lab) who blamed the Government for breaking its pledge that NHS reforms would not lead to renewed restrictions on cancer drugs.
They called on Ministers to urgently ensure cancer patients were not in a worse position.
Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said the list left many questions unanswered.
Mark Flannagan, Chief Executive of Beating Bowel Cancer, said the list left many questions unanswered.
He said ‘What we are concerned about is that these arrangements are temporary and only give bowel cancer patients limited breathing space.
‘We still need some assurance from Government that patients will continue to access the drugs that successfully treat the disease, beyond the end of the year.’
Sean Duffy, National Clinical Director for Cancer at NHS England, said doctors would still be able to make individual funding requests for patients even if the treatment is not on the national list.
But critics say the process for such requests has not yet been organised and patients could face delays when they may have only months to live.
Dr Duffy insisted the new list was a ‘national levelling up’ of the number of approved treatments.
He said ‘This means more people will benefit. It is really important that we stretch every penny of the Cancer Drugs Fund so we get maximum benefit to the most people we possibly can.
“This is a step forward for the Cancer Drugs Fund. In recent weeks cancer specialists from across the country have been working together to agree one national list of approved fast-track drugs for the Cancer Drugs Fund, which will then allow more uniform access to treatment and reduce variation of prescribing across the country.
‘Having one consistent method for consideration of overall clinical benefit and funding means that all applications will be assessed by the same criteria.
Regional variation of the past is clearly not acceptable for patients. Clinicians can still apply for drugs to join the national list of approved fast-track cancer drugs
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2304103/The-great-cancer-betrayal-Number-treatments-approved-list-patients-HALVED-NHS-reforms.html#ixzz2PXXdtakV
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