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24 August 2010
Bowel Cancer UK has expressed its disappointment at NICE’s decision not to recommend Avastin (bevacizumab) for the treatment of advanced bowel cancer. NICE recently conducted a second review of the drug but decided that its high cost relative to the benefits it brings means that it would not be a cost- effective use of NHS resources for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. Bevacizumab is a targeted therapy, which works alongside chemotherapy to help shrink and remove tumours that have spread from the bowel to other parts of the body, usually the liver and the lungs. It is estimated that approximately 6,500 people per year might be eligible for the drug, which costs around £20,800 per patient. Announcing NICE’s decision, Sir Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of NICE, explained, “We have recommended several treatments for various stages of colorectal cancer, including cetuximab for the first-line treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer. We are disappointed not to be able to recommend bevacizumab as well but we have to be confident that the benefits justify the considerable cost of this drug.” However, Ian Beaumont, Campaigns Director, Bowel Cancer UK, commented, “Bowel Cancer UK is naturally disappointed that NICE has turned down Bevacizumab (Avastin) for use on the NHS, when there is so much evidence of the treatment’s efficacy and it is so widely available to patients across the rest of Europe. It is also regrettable that it has taken NICE nearly a year to reach its verdict, when it has pledged to speed up its appraisal processes. “We hope, however, that the imminent introduction of the new Interim Drugs Fund and the Cancer Drugs Fund next year will enable patients and their clinicians to gain greater access to effective treatments like Bevacizumab on the NHS and help to create a fairer, more timely and more efficient system of doing so, that puts patients’ health needs first.” Barbara Moss, a bowel cancer patient from Worcester was left upset by NICE’s decision not to recommend the drug. She said, “To say that I am disappointed doesn't touch on the depth of my feeling at such a poor decision from NICE. I am living proof that Bevacizumab (Avastin) works. I was a patient at a hospice (St Richard’s in Worcester), dying of advanced bowel cancer; now I am free of the disease and visit my friends there. “I have seen other people dying of bowel cancer and it hurts. I know, and their families know, that they might have been alive today if they has been given a chance with Avastin, like I was. It seems immoral to me that, as a result of negative NICE decisions like this one, people’s choice of living or dying depends on whether they can afford a drug, because it isn’t available to them on the NHS.” NICE’s draft guidance has now been issued for a second stage of consultation, giving stakeholders a further chance to submit their comments. Final guidance has therefore not yet been issued to the NHS.