It is claimed in a report funded by Roche, the drug company, that Britain is falling down in its provision of drugs for cancer.

Britain is sick man of Europe for providing cancer drugs - Independent

Extract:

"British patients are being denied access to life-saving cancer drugs that are widely available in the rest of Europe and the developed world, according to a report.

The NHS's "penny-pinching" attitude to new treatments and "excessive bureaucracy" surrounding their assessment is condemning cancer sufferers in Britain to an early death, it says.

A review of the availability of 67 new cancer drugs in 25 countries has found that Britain languishes close to the bottom of the league. along with Poland, the Czech Republic, South Africa and New Zealand.

The authors, from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, say research in the US, which has the highest use of new cancer drugs, has shown that new treatments have significantly increased the chances of surviving cancer.

A separate study of 20 countries showed that nearly a third of the improvement in cancer survival between 1995 and 2003 could be attributed to new drugs.

In Europe, the UK has the lowest survival rates and the lowest use of new drugs compared with the major Western countries of France, Spain, Germany and Italy. In all four countries, more than half of cancer patients were being treated with drugs launched since 1985, but in the UK only 40 per cent were.

The report, funded by the Swiss pharmaceutical manufacturer Roche, is an update of an earlier review published two years ago. Although Roche had no control of the report or its findings, the conclusions will help the drugs industry highlight inequalities in access to cancer drugs and so widen its market.

Paying for the new drugs, which cost up to £100,000 a year per patient, is putting pressure on health budgets in all countries. "

I consider it significant that the report was funded by a drug company...)o:

A non-drug way to reduce your risk of getting cancer is to minimise your intake of salt and salty food. - See http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/socio.html and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html

Further extract:

"Cancer drugs

Herceptin (trastuzumab)
Breast cancer - approved by Nice in 2006 for use on the NHS.

Mabthera (rituximab)
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma - approved in 2004.

Glivec (imatinib)
Chronic myeloid leukaemia - approved in 2003.

Erbitux (cetuximab)
Bowel cancer - refused approval in January 2007. Awaiting appraisal for head and neck cancer (expected June 2007).

Avastin (bevacizumab)
Bowel cancer - refused approval January 2007. Awaiting appraisal for lung cancer (expected January 2008), advanced breast cancer and advanced kidney cancer.

Tarceva (erlotinib)
Lung cancer - awaiting appraisal.

Sutent (sunitinib)
Kidney cancer - not referred for appraisal by Department of Health.

Nexavar (sorafenib)
Kidney cancer - awaiting referral by Department of Health for appraisal.

Velcade (bortezomib)
Multiple myeloma - awaiting appraisal. "

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See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
and http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/conditions.html
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