UK charities protest NICE bowel cancer ruling

The UK government's advisory body on health care standards and treatments for England and Wales, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has come under criticism from patient groups for its decision to refuse its recommendation for Swiss drug major Roche's Avastin (bevacizumab) and USA-based ImClone Systems' Erbitux (cetuximab; marketed outside North America by Germany's Merck KGaA), for the treatment of bowel cancer.

Hilary Whittaker, chief executive of the UK charity, Beating Bowel Cancer, described the decision as a scandal. She said: "we are now the only nation in the European Union not to offer cetuximab and bevacizumab to bowel cancer patients in the disease's advanced stages."

The NICE claims that there is insufficient evidence to support the use of the two drugs in the National Health Service. Supporters of the drugs point out that they have shown in some clinical trials to extend life by four to five months.