Plea for Scots to get cancer wonder drug

‘Breakthrough’ treatment now on offer in England

CHARITIES are demanding Scots get access to r evolutionary cancer drugs being made available in England today.

Two new treatments have been approved south of the Border which can gi ve patients battling incurable breast cancer up to ten more months of life.

The drugs – which slow tumour growth – have been hailed by experts as a major breakthrough, but Scotland’s drug approval body is still assessing the treatments.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the use of ribociclib and palbociclib for the NHS in England after securing an undisclosed discount on the £2,950-a-month cost.

Charity Breast Cancer Now is calling for the drugs to be ‘unlocked’ for Scottish women. Both work in similar ways and up to 600 women in Scotland could benefit every year.

Lawrence Cowan, policy and campaigns manager for Breast Cancer Now in Scotland, said: ‘Everything must be done to unlock these drugs on Scotland’s NHS. Scottish women must not be left behind.

‘ Palbociclib and ribociclib represent an exciting new class of drugs that can slow the spread of i ncurable breast cancer, giving patients significant and precious extra time.

‘We need to see equality across the UK to ensure Scottish patients can access these ground-breaking drugs, at a price the Scottish NHS and taxpayer can afford.’

The drugs work on advanced forms of the most common type of breast cancer, the hormone positive HER2 negative type.

They delay the need for chemotherapy and are given as daily pills with an aromatase inhibitor, a medicine that blocks the production of the hormone oestrogen, stopping its ability to fuel some breast cancers.

Trials have shown taking the drugs stops aggressive cancers progressing by more than two years – ten months longer than the standard treatment.

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) is considering both medicines. A decision on palbociclib is expected next month, with a ruling on ribociclib expected early next year.

Palbociclib can be accessed for free by patients in Scotland through a scheme being run by its manufacturer, Pfizer, while final decisions are made.

Professor Nicholas Turner, of the Institute of Cancer Research London, who led trials of palbociclib, said: ‘The development of this brand new class of cancer drug is one of the most important breakthroughs for women with advanced breast cancer in the last two decades.’

Professor Carole Longson, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at NICE, said: ‘Palbociclib and ribociclib may reduce the number of people who are exposed to the often unpleasant side effects of chemotherapy and delay the need for its use in others.’

The SMC said: ‘We anticipate advice for ribociclib for locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer will be made available in early 2018... advice will be issued on palbociclib for the same condition in early December.’

‘Significant extra time’