James Whale Fund defends challenges cancer experts on access to drugs
12 October 2011
Last month, a group of 37 cancer experts put their names to a report in the Lancet Oncology journal to condemn what they claim to be a 'culture of excess' which has led doctors to 'overtreat, overdiagnose and overpromise' when it comes to cancer medicines. They suggested that ‘the cancer profession and industry should take responsibility and not accept an…ethos of very small benefit at whatever cost’. The article was been interpreted as a challenge to access to cancer drugs for patients with terminal cancer such as RCC.
James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer quickly jumped to the defence of patients in the press, and we will continue to make the argument that swift access to kidney cancer medicines which consultants wish to prescribe for kidney cancer patients is absolutely essential over the coming months. (See Daily Mail.)
Professor Sir Mike Richards, National Clinical Director for Cancer and End of Life Care, published a report on the Extent and causes of international variations in drug usage in 2010. The report ranked medicines usage in Britain and 13 other countries broadly comparable in terms of economic development, level of gross domestic product (GDP) and proportion of GDP spent on healthcare. Britain was ranked one of the lowest in terms of usage of new cancer medicines (licenced in the last 5 years), well behind countries such as France, Germany and the USA.
While patients in England currently benefit from the Cancer Drugs Fund, which provides access to medicine not currently approved by NICE, the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer will continue to put pressure on the Scottish and Welsh Governments to address issues of access to cancer medicines.
