Published 21 days ago • loading... • Updated 20 days ago

Men denied life-extending prostate cancer drug on NHS in England

NHS England has not approved abiraterone, a drug that can help stop prostate cancer from spreading, for high-risk patients whose cancer has not yet spread, while it has been available in Scotland for two years for the same patient group since at least October 2023.
Research from the Stampede trial published in 2022 showed that abiraterone halved the rate of cancer progression and improved the six-year survival rate for earlier stage patients, leading a cancer charity to express anger and frustration over its lack of availability in England.
Each year, approximately 8,400 patients in England have high-risk prostate cancer that has not yet spread, and it is estimated that 672 of these men could die prematurely without access to abiraterone, according to NHS England figures using Stampede assumptions.
Giles Turner, a retired banker from Sussex diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023, chose to pay £250 a month for abiraterone treatment, costing him £20,000 so far, because it was not available on the NHS in England, expressing that he was 'stunned' and felt 'outraged' for those who could not afford it.
NHS England's decision, following a lengthy review, was based on overall affordability, with Health Minister Karin Smyth stating in December 2024 that it was not possible to identify the necessary recurrent headroom in revenue budgets, while a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson acknowledged patient frustration.

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Our thanks to Jeff for this. Outrageous. There’s no national screening programme for prostate cancer, and now men with prostate cancer in England and Northern Ireland are denied an inexpensive drug on the NHS. It hardly need be said that the NHS would pay for the drug if it were for treating a female-specific cancer. Or that more men die of prostate cancer than women die of breast cancer. Or that men on average die years earlier than women. Or t…

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