Cancer drug block blow

7:47am Tuesday 3rd April 2007

A GROUP offering support to sufferers of asbestos exposure in York has condemned a decision to block the NHS dispensing a drug to treat the condition.

A document published by the National Institute For Clinical Excellence (NICE) - which provides guidance on treating ill-health - said it did not recommend pemetrexed disodium (Alimta) as an effective use of NHS resources.

Alimta is a licensed treatment - and has been received by patients with malignant mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer, for more than two years.

Mesothelioma is primarily caused by exposure to asbestos - which means it affects people who have historically worked in manufacturing industries.

Exposure to asbestos has claimed the lives of scores of former York Carriageworks employees over the years.

Kim Daniells, chairwoman of the York Asbestos Support Group, said: "This is a devastating development for those battling this terrible condition. Yet again, victims of mesothelioma are being denied the only effective treatment for this illness.

"The final decision on Alimta is not due until the autumn, but this news suggests that asbestos victims and campaigners will be disappointed.

"The incidence of mesothelioma will continue to rise for the next five to ten years, and every effort must be made to find better treatments.

"However, these trials will not benefit those who have already been diagnosed.

"The reality is that mesothelioma victims will continue to die while NICE looks at evidence."

Ms Daniells said Alimta was the treatment of choice for mesothelioma in the US and elsewhere.

She said: "The support group must now continue with its fight to ensure that mesothelioma victims can get the treatment they need and deserve."

NICE is carrying out an appraisal of Alimta following appeals by drugs manufacturer Eli Lilly and Company Limited, and the Royal College of Nurses, against an earlier decision to block the use of the treatment.

Dr Gillian Leng, implementation director and executive lead for NICE's guidance on the treatment, said: "Although aspects of the appeals were upheld, a further review, in accordance with the directions of the Appeal Panel, of the data available on the clinical and cost effectiveness of Alimta for the treatment of malignant pleural mesothelioma, did not show that Alimta plus cisplatin was superior to other, far less costly treatment regimens currently being used to treat mesothelioma."

Professor Nick Thatcher, specialist lung consultant at the Christie Hospital NHS Trust and South Manchester University Trust Hospital, said: "Yet again, NICE have applied their particular costing approach of one size fits all, and as a result NHS patients will die prematurely from pleural mesothelioma."

Dr Leng said NICE was recommending trials to compare Alimta with other treatments being used in England and Wales.

NICE's draft guidance is available for public consultation on their website: www.nice.org.uk until April 23.

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