NICE Rejection Leaves Asbestos Patients With No Active Treatment, Says Cancerbackup, UK

Main Category: Asbestos / Mesothelioma
Also Included In: Lung Cancer
Article Date: 08 Apr 2007 - 0:00 PDT

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Reacting to the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence's (NICE) new interim guidance following the original negative decision upheld at appeal on Pemetrexed (Alimta) for the treatment of patients with mesothelioma, the condition caused by exposure to asbestos, charity Cancerbackup issues the following statement:

"Again it would seem that NICE is rejecting this drug largely on cost grounds", says Joanne Rule, chief executive of Cancerbackup. "But this treatment is for a disease which people have contracted mostly due to their working environment. It is not fair to deny active treatment to these patients. Although the drug is not curative it does offer extra months for a particularly vulnerable group of people with cancer. As this is the interim guidance until the final decision is issued by NICE, primary care trusts can and should make this treatment available to NHS patients under the Health Service Circular 1999/176."

-- Cancerbackup is the only national charity that specialises in providing information on all types of cancer.

-- All Cancerbackup services are free to cancer patients, their relatives and friends.

-- Cancerbackup Centres can be found in St Bartholomew's Hospital, Charing Cross Hospital, the London Clinic, The Christie Hospital, Ipswich Hospital, Nottingham University Hospitals, Coventry's University Hospital and Jersey.

-- Cancerbackup, as a charity, receives 54% of its funding from individuals, 11% from charitable trusts, 5% from grants, 14% from companies, 2% from investments and 14% from its trading company. Pharmaceutical companies contributed 9% of the total 2005/06 income.

-- In April 2006 Cancerbackup changed its name from CancerBACUP, so that the charity's name better represents the service the charity provides: information, understanding and support to anyone affected by cancer.

www.cancerbackup.org.uk

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