THOUSANDS of lung cancer patients in Scotland are to be given access to the world’s first once-a-day pill to treat the disease, after many were denied it on the NHS.
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) yesterday approved the drug Tarceva for use by patients with an advanced form of the most common type of lung cancer.
This means health boards will be obliged to fund the drug – which costs £1,700 a month per patient – in patients whose doctors think they will benefit from the treatment.
Campaigners said many patients had been denied the drug by health boards in Scotland and were told the money was not there to pay for it.
The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation said it had received calls from patients and their families desperate to get the drug, which can increase life expectancy by months. But many do not live long enough to see through their appeals and challenges to health boards.
Dr Marianne Nicolson, a leading lung cancer specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, said the SMC’s decision to recommend Tarceva was “fantastic news” for doctors and patients. She said Scottish patients were the first in the UK to benefit from the drug, which is unlikely to be reviewed by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence for use in England and Wales before 2007.
“This drug is not a cure, but it makes a massive difference to a patient’s quality of life,” she said. “They are likely to feel less breathless, have less of a cough and less pain.
Dr Nicolson said that the drug could also give patients valuable extra months with their families. In some cases, where patients responded well to the treatment, they could live for years rather than months.
And as the drug is in pill form, it can be taken in the comfort of patients’ homes rather than them having to spend hours in hospital on a drip.
About 4,500 people are diagnosed with lung cancer in Scotland every year, with rates of the disease much higher than elsewhere in the UK.
Tarceva has been recommended for use in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer who have failed to respond to one other chemotherapy treatment.
This could make the drug suitable for more than 1,500 patients every year.
Drug trials show that 31 per cent of patients taking Tarceva were still alive a year after treatment, compared with 20 per cent of those on a placebo.
Tarcevea also reduced the risk of the disease progressing by 39 per cent.
Currently, half of lung cancer patients are not offered active treatment for their illness because the options available are not considered to be appropriate or the person was not fit enough to receive it.
Dr Nicolson said the cost of the Tarceva was high, but the effect on patients’ quality of life and the benefits of being able to spend longer with their families were immeasurable.
Susan Christie, of the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, said the SMC decision should mean that patients are no longer denied access to Tarceva on the NHS.
“A lot of patients have been told by their doctors that there is this drug that could help them, but the health boards say they cannot pay for it,” she said.
“A lot of patients have appealed against the decision, have written to their MSP and considered what legal action they could take.
“But by the time they have gone through this process it is often too late.”
Amjad Hussain, 37, of East Kilbride who has lung cancer, has been taken Tarceva for seven months. He said the drug had made a massive difference to his life, allowing him to spend more time with his wife, Angela, and their children Nadia, three and Haylie, nine.
“After I had been taking the drug for a few months I had a scan and it showed that the tumour had shrunk,” Mr Hussain said.
“It has been really good and I am glad I have been allowed to take it.”
Mr Hussain said it was a massive shock when he was diagnosed with lung cancer in November 2002.
“I have never smoked, I played football, I went to the gym and I was fine.
“I ran a hot food takeaway, so I was not exposed to smoking or anything.”
Source: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=867522006
By LYNDSAY MOSS
Filed under: Tarceva, Uncategorized
