A WOMAN from York has collected a 45,000 signature petition calling for a special cancer drug to be reinstated which could give her precious extra years with her boyfriend.

Victoria Janes says her boyfriend Richard Bassett, 27, was one of a small number of cancer patients nationwide who could benefit greatly from regorafenib.

She said he was diagnosed in 2008 as suffering from a rare type of cancer, 'Wildtype' Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumour (GIST), which had more recently spread to his liver.

She said the cancer currently had no cure but could be effectively treated with regorafenib if it was unresponsive to two other prescribed drugs, imatinib and sunitinib.

"It has proved very successful in stopping disease growth or causing significant shrinkage, and is better tolerated by patients," said Victoria, 28, who grew up in Clifton and attended St Peter's School.

"Younger patients with a rare form of “Wildtype” GIST respond very well to regorafenib."

But she said that earlier this year, the NHS Cancer Drugs Fund had decided to stop funding the treatment, meaning that patients whose GIST cancer was inoperable, or had spread widely and was not contained by alternatives, had no other treatment options available and would die sooner than might otherwise have been the case.

"This drug costs £3,400 per month, which is not expensive is comparison with many other cancer drugs, and as there are only 29 patients nationwide with advanced GIST who are receiving it, the cost to the NHS would be a drop in the ocean," she said.

"Richard is at the stage where sunitinib appears to be proving increasingly ineffective, and regorafenib may soon be the only effective treatment left which could give us precious extra years together."

She said her petition, which calls for regorafenib to be reinstated on the Cancer Drugs Fund list and can be found at http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/73911, had won backing from celebrities she had tweeted, including Sally Gunnell, Russell Brand, Kim Marsh and the Hairy Bikers. Her target was 100,000 signatures, which she hoped would lead to a Parliamentary debate.

A GIST cancer charity, GIST support UK, said regorafenib had proved very successful in treating GIST cancer that had become unresponsive to imatinib and sunitinib, stopping the disease growing or causing significant shrinkage.

The fund said earlier this year that had action not been taken to review its drugs list, cuts would have been needed in other aspects of cancer treatment such as radiotherapy, cancer diagnoses, cancer surgery, and important NHS services for other patient groups.

York Press:
Victoria Janes and Richard Bassett

It said a national panel – comprising oncologists, pharmacists and patient representatives -independently carried out a detailed assessment of the evidence, looking at clinical benefit, survival and quality of life, the toxicity and safety of the treatment, the level of unmet need and the median cost per patient.

"In cases where the high cost of a drug would lead to its exclusion from CDF, manufacturers were given an opportunity to reduce prices," it said, adding that 59 of the 84 most effective currently approved drugs would roll over into the coming year, creating headroom for new drugs that would be funded for the first time.

An NHS spokesman said yesterday that in exceptional cases, clinicians could apply for an individual to receive a drug ruled out by the fund if they could argue it was the only available treatment and could prolong longevity and quality of life.

He added that any patient currently receiving a drug through the Fund would continue to receive it, and drugs which were the only therapy for the cancer in question would remain available through the Fund.