A decade on, but the UK's NICE has not proved nice for cancer patients
As the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE; which recommends treatment under the National Health Service excluding Scotland) celebrates its 10th anniversary, an uncoordinated approach to chemotherapy leaves cancer patients suffering.
Cancer experts say major flaws in the system for approving drugs are still leaving the latest therapies under-used in the NHS. While exciting new cancer drugs are being approved for use in the state system, the supportive treatments that prevent the side effects associated with them rarely get the thumbs up because of cost. The adverse events can be so bad in some patients that doctors are forced to reduce the dose of the chemotherapy drugs to levels that may fail to kill the cancer. This is a problem not seen in private practice, where funding for supportive treatments is easily accessible.
Succinct leads call for NICE action
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