Breast cancer patients denied 43p daily drug

A LIFE-SAVING breast cancer pill that costs 43p a day is being denied to around four in five women in need of it, figures show.

The drugs can cut the risk of disease spreading by more than one quarter, preventing one in 10 breast cancer deaths. But NHS Freedom of Information (FOI) disclosures show the pills – which could benefit more than 35,000 women a year – are being funded in only one in five areas.

Cancer specialists accused health officials of allowing more than 1,000 women a year to die as a result.

Charity Breast Cancer Now said the failure to ensure the drugs are funded was “inexcusable” and urged ministers and NHS leaders to intervene.

The drugs, called bisphosphonates, were originally designed to treat osteoporosis. But they are also prescribed for men with advanced prostate cancer, after research found that they alter bone tissue, making it harder for cancer cells to survive. Two years ago, a major study in The Lancet established that the chance of disease spreading to the bone – where it becomes incurable – fell by 28 per cent among postmenopausal patients given the daily drugs.

The charity accused health officials and ministers of a “lack of leadership” in failing to ensure that the cheap drugs are funded, amid a fog of “red tape”.

Because the drug has yet to be assessed by NHS rationing bodies, and is not licensed for breast cancer, NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGS) have not been instructed to fund it. As a result, just 42 of 208 of CCGS have done so, the FOI reveals.

Rob Coleman, professor of medical oncology at the University of Sheffield, urged NHS England to issue clear guidance with immediate effect: “That over 1,000 women a year are being allowed to die unnecessarily from breast cancer is a shameful irresponsibility.”

An NHS England spokesman said: “Breast cancer survival is now at its highest ever.”