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28-Dec-2007 - Merseyside kidney cancer patients to be given fighting chance
Merseyside kidney cancer patients to be given fighting chance
by Liza Williams
70 people denied drugs in Merseyside
CAMPAIGNERS were last night celebrating after pri-mary care trusts in Mersey- side and Cheshire agreed to start offering a kidney cancer drug on the NHS.
Sutent, is a drug yet to be licensed by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, meaning PCTs are not obliged to offer it.
Until now, kidney cancer sufferers have had to rely on special treatment panels at PCTs allowing pleas for Sutent.
Even if consultants said a patient should receive it, there was no guarantee it would be offered by PCTs, who are obliged to factor in the drug’s cost-effectiveness as well as its likelihood of success.
Earlier this year, it was revealed Sutent was among the drugs which had been refused to patients by PCTs in Merseyside and Cheshire in the last 18 months.
PCTs in Merseyside said they deferred the decision on whether Sutent should be offered as standard medication to the North West Specialist Commissioning Team, a branch of the NHS based in Warrington, which had said it should be offered.
“The decision was taken by them on behalf of the PCTs,” said a spokesman for Wirral Primary Care Trust.
Other primary care trusts in the North West have yet to take such a decision, and the Merseyside and Cheshire PCTs are among the first in the UK to offer it without first seeking panel approval.
Prof Robert Hawkins, from the cancer specialist Christie Hospital, in Manchester, had been running trials with Sutent on patients, including Southport man Frank Buckle, who otherwise would have had to pay for it privately.
Prof Hawkins said: “We have been very impressed with Sutent at the Christie. It's a treatment, not a cure, but it's not only been better in terms of shrinking tumours and keeping people well, it gives people a better quality of life.
“In the future, we may not have to operate on patients who we would have needed to in previous years. Sutent is a good drug for a group of patients who do not have many options.”
Radio broadcaster James Whale, chairman of the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, said: “Until now, people with advanced kidney cancer have had little hope of extended life. The availability of Sutent for the treatment of this form of cancer is testament to the importance of continued funding into research to help alleviate the suffering of these patients”.
Frank Buckle
Mr Buckle, 70, first received Sutent in 2005 and said it worked much better than other forms of treatment.
The company director said: “When you see the waste in the NHS, it is staggering there is still a system where they turn round and say ‘No, we can’t afford that’.”
N.I.C.E. has yet to make a final decision on Sutent, but health minister Ann Keen warned: “It is for local PCTs to decide whether to make Sutent available to patients.
“It is therefore not acceptable for national health service organisa-tions to refuse to fund a treatment simply because it has not been appraised by NICE.”
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24-Dec-2007 - Gene therapy boost for kidney cancer patients
Gene therapy boost for kidney cancer patients
KIDNEY cancer patients in Merseyside could be given new hope with the launch of a major new gene therapy trial.
Leading cancer centre, Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, is offering suitable patients the option to receive a vaccine treatment that may slow the progression of their kidney, or renal, cancer.
The Wirral-based hospital is one of just 120 centres across the world taking part in the trial of the treatment which is hoped to increase life expectancy.
Dr Ernie Marshall, who is leading the study at Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology, said: “Vaccines have been successful in preventing disease caused by foreign invading bacteria or viruses.
“This has prompted much research to test if vaccines can be made to prevent or treat cancer.
“National experts in the treatment of kidney cancer are supporting this trial, and we are one of only a handful of hospitals in the country that is in a position to be able to take part.
“We take our research responsibilities extremely seriously and are committed to improving outcomes for kidney cancer patients.
“Data gathered from this important study will possibly change the way that future patients are treated.”
Gene therapy is essentially a means of fixing a problem at its source.
By adding a corrected copy of the gene, it helps the affected cells, tissues and organs to work properly.
The treatment differs from traditional drug-based approaches, which may treat the problem but which do not repair the underlying genetic flaw.
Studies completed so far indicate that the newly-available TroVax vaccine switches on the body’s production of antibodies and immune cells against a substance found on the surface of kidney cancer cells.
Two hundred patients have already been treated with the vaccine and a larger international study is now vital to assess whether or not this treatment fights cancer.
The vaccine is administered by a simple injection into the upper arm of the patient. This injection is repeated throughout treatment, as the immune effects produced by such vaccines only last a few months.
The centre says the vaccine has been reviewed and permitted by all relevant regulatory bodies in the UK including the UK Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency and the Gene Therapy Advisory Committee.
PATIENTS are only eligible to enter the TroVax trial if they meet strict medical criteria and must not have suffered serious infections for 28 days prior to vaccination.
THOSE interested in finding out more should seek the advice of their doctor.
by: Liam Murphy
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