Published 27 August 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1450
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1450

News

Professors call for review of way cancer drugs in NHS are rationed

Zosia Kmietowicz

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has defended the way it decides which drugs should be funded by the NHS in England, after a group of 26 eminent oncologists from England and Scotland criticised its methods. They called for "a radical change in how the NHS makes rationing decisions for cancer."

In a letter to the Sunday Times on 24 August (www.timesonline.co.uk, "Cancer drugs due a review") the oncologists, headed by Karol Sikora, professor of cancer medicine at Imperial College London, called on NICE to get its "sums right."

They were responding to the latest guidance from NICE on four drugs for advanced renal cancer. In draft guidance issued earlier in August NICE proposed rejecting the drugs sunitinib, bevacizumab, sorafenib, and temsirolimus for advanced renal cancer, saying they are clinically effective but not good value for money (BMJ 2008;337:a1262, 14 Aug, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a1262).

. . . [Full text of this article]


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