New cancer drugs will give patients longer lives

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JODY HARRISON

some very desperate people. Every single patient who is on their last drug treatment, and people who are on their first and second, will be cheering this decision.

“This is the news many have been waiting for. It will extend people’s lives.”

Kidney cancer is the seventh most common cancer in the UK, with around 12,000 cases diagnosed each year, the equivalent of 33 people a day.

Biotech company Ipsen said trials of cabozantinib had shown it to extend the median overall survival of patients by 21.4 months, and more than 50 patients in Scotland have already benefited from having the drug as part of an early access programme.

Mrs Doherty said that her own lifespan had been increased by years thanks to the drug treatments she has taken, and is waiting to see if she will be approved for the new drugs.

The former psychotherapist, a volunteer with the Kidney Cancer Support Network, said: “Each time you begin treatment with a drug you are playing a waiting game until it stops working or there are complications which mean you cannot take it any more.

“Two new drugs will give patients two more chances to extend their lives. I have had five and a half years since my first drug treatment and that is pretty good going when you have stage 4 cancer.”

Robert Jones, professor of clinical cancer research at the University of Glasgow, said: “The approval of cabozantinib for use in NHS Scotland is a positive step forward in how we care for people living with advanced