In response to today’s news that the anti-cancer drug sunitinib (SutentÒ) has been launched as a first line treatment for advanced kidney cancer, Tim O’Brien, a trustee of the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer and a consultant urologist at Guy’s & St Thomas’ Hospital NHS Trust, said:

“The Fund welcomes this announcement and hopes that Sutent will become readily available to all patients who might benefit.

Drugs of this class present a real ray of hope for these patients, and exciting times lie ahead as we work out the very best way to use them."

The James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer was set up in 2006 by broadcaster James Whale who lost a kidney to cancer six years earlier.

Its mission is to help reduce the harm caused by kidney cancer by increasing knowledge and awareness, by providing patient information and by supporting research into the causes, prevention and treatment of the disease.

More than 6,600 people are diagnosed with kidney cancer each year in the UK