Effective cancer drugs

SIR – At present cetuximab and panitumumab, two drugs for the treatment of advanced bowel cancer, are available via the Cancer Drug Fund in England. However, the use of these drugs in first-line treatment of the disease is now under review.

As more drugs have been made available over the last 20 years, we have seen a major improvement in the median survival rate for patients with advanced bowel cancer. Half of patients with a particular form of tumour are now living longer than 30 months when treated with chemotherapy based on cetuximab or panitumumab.

If Nice decides to stop funding these drugs, then we will only be able to offer patients treatments that we had a decade ago. This could also have an impact on patients in the devolved nations, particularly Wales and Scotland. Another indirect consequence would be that the country will not be able to participate in international clinical trials, since we will no longer be able to provide “gold standard” chemotherapy.

These targeted drugs are routinely available to patients in much of western Europe and North America. Reducing their availability in Britain would be a tragic and retrograde step. Dr Mark Saunders Chairman, Beating Bowel Cancer Medical Advisory Board Dr Rob Glynne-Jones Chairman, Bowel Cancer UK Medical Advisory Board and 52 others: see telegraph.co.uk