Experts fight to keep NHS treatment for cancer victims
Medical experts have joined the fight to stop an English ruling denying Scottish cancer patients a life-prolonging drug.
David Dunlop, head of chemotherapy in Glasgow, has written to campaigners saying it is "staggering" that an English body could overrule Scotland's decision to offer the cancer treatment.
His comments clash with that of his employer, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Tom Divers, health authority chief executive, has told the Scottish Parliament he feels it would be unwise not to follow the English advice.
The row focuses on Alimta, the only licensed treatment for mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by exposure to asbestos which prevails in the west of Scotland.
The drug was approved for NHS use in Scotland in 2005. A more detailed study of the treatment is to be published by the National Institute of Clinical Excellence, which advises English health trusts, this autumn. In a public draft of its report, Nice recommends against prescribing the drug.
Its judgment has automatically triggered a review of Scotland's decision and NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) has indicated that if nothing changes Nice's opinion would prevail.
Dr Dunlop says in a letter to the Scottish Parliament: "I find it staggering that an English healthcare bureaucracy (Nice) will make a decision that will deny Scottish patients access to a drug which our executive assessed and agreed was appropriate."
He adds that he and many other Scottish oncologists have seen the benefits of Alimta in patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma. Referring to experts consulted by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde who felt Nice's decision should be accepted, Dr Dunlop adds: "Their opinion is not representative of the vast majority of oncologists in this country."
Dr Marianne Nicolson, lung cancer specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, has also backed the campaign.
Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer which usually affects the protective lining of the lungs. Patients are often given a life expectancy of less than one year.
In Scotland, where asbestos was used heavily, especially in Clydeside shipyards, rates of mesothelioma are 31% higher than the UK average.
Glasgow's rate is more than double.
Studies have found Alimta can extend survival by three months and reduce pain and coughing to give sufferers a better quality of life, although it does not work for everyone. Four cycles of treatment are said to cost £6000.
Andrew Watterson, head of occupational and environmental health at Stirling University, said a review which covered 20 different treatment centres worldwide found Alimta, combined with other treatments, brought benefits.
Professor Watterson and Tommy Gorman, who has also researched the illness in Scotland, have added their voices to the campaign in a letter to The Herald, saying: "To deny access to a drug, which can extend life and greatly reduce the worst features of the disease, is inhumane."
Pressure is growing for Scotland to safeguard Alimta ahead of the elections. Clydebank Asbestos Group is calling on party leaders to make their position on Alimta clear. Lilly UK, which makes the drug, commissioned a survey involving 54 election candidates. Of these 69% said Nice's position should not be allowed to supersede Scottish guidance.
A spokesman for NHS QIS said: "When the final Nice report is published later this year we will make appropriate recommendations."
If not for Alimta I would not be here'
WHEN Gordon Norquoy was diagnosed with advanced mesothelioma he was told he may have only months - or even weeks -
to live. The fit farmer, who had never smoked, was devastated.
Although he knew the tiredness which had haunted him for months was a sign something was wrong, it did not occur to him exposure to asbestos had damaged his lungs.
However, tests after a bout of pneumonia revealed Mr Norquoy, who worked in construction in Australia in the 1960s, had developed the aggressive cancer. The 65-year-old, from Orkney, said: "You just go to pieces for a day or two. It wasn't a very good prognosis at all."
However, when he was prescribed new treatment Alimta, the regular check-ups revealed a different story.
Mr Norquoy said doctors had told him it had stopped the cancer in its tracks.
He added: "To be brutally honest, I think if I had not been treated with Alimta, I would not be here."
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Posted by: Robert, Eccy Byde on 11:17am Thu 26 Apr 07
So who are you going to listen to, Tom Divers, health authority chief executive or Drs David Dunlop, head of chemotherapy in Glasgow, Marianne Nicolson, lung cancer specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Professor Andrew Watterson, head of occupational and environmental health at Stirling University?
There's your Union Dividend at work folks!.
So who are you going to listen to, Tom Divers, health authority chief executive or Drs David Dunlop, head of chemotherapy in Glasgow, Marianne Nicolson, lung cancer specialist at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary and Professor Andrew Watterson, head of occupational and environmental health at Stirling University?
There's your Union Dividend at work folks!.
Posted by: norma solidarity, moray on 12:58pm Thu 26 Apr 07
When I look at the other forums on this website and watch dozens of people arguing over whether Jack the Lad or Wee Eck would make the 'best' first minister it makes me sick! And then you come to a story like this which has attracted no comment at all! Politics is NOT a game to be played by political anoraks in their quest to rubbish each other. It is a matter of life and death - quite literally for these patients! Come on people - let's get our priorities right!
I'm speaking as someone who has had cancer and who received the best of treatment available. My treatment was decided by the clinicians at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - not by faceless bureaucrats 'somewhere down south'! This article says that 69% of candidates said that NICE should not influence this decision - which would seem to indicate that 31% agreed that it should. These candidates should be named so we can decide at the ballot box if we agree with them or not!
When I look at the other forums on this website and watch dozens of people arguing over whether Jack the Lad or Wee Eck would make the 'best' first minister it makes me sick! And then you come to a story like this which has attracted no comment at all! Politics is NOT a game to be played by political anoraks in their quest to rubbish each other. It is a matter of life and death - quite literally for these patients! Come on people - let's get our priorities right!
I'm speaking as someone who has had cancer and who received the best of treatment available. My treatment was decided by the clinicians at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary - not by faceless bureaucrats 'somewhere down south'! This article says that 69% of candidates said that NICE should not influence this decision - which would seem to indicate that 31% agreed that it should. These candidates should be named so we can decide at the ballot box if we agree with them or not!
Posted by: Louise McF, Falkirk on 2:45pm Thu 26 Apr 07
My father was diagnosed with mesothelioma and survived for only 6 months in extreme pain. Alimta was not an option then and there was basically no effective treatment available. It would be going back to the Dark Ages to have an effective treatment you were not allowed to prescribe on the NHS (don't forget that ,if you can afford to pay for it, you can have it) and it is astonishing that, in this age of patient focused treatments, this drug could be denied when it could help ease the short life of people with mesothelioma. Maybe they should do some consultation work with "real" people and base the recommendations on the results and not rely on results from someone else's study which may or may not be accurate.
My father was diagnosed with mesothelioma and survived for only 6 months in extreme pain. Alimta was not an option then and there was basically no effective treatment available. It would be going back to the Dark Ages to have an effective treatment you were not allowed to prescribe on the NHS (don't forget that ,if you can afford to pay for it, you can have it) and it is astonishing that, in this age of patient focused treatments, this drug could be denied when it could help ease the short life of people with mesothelioma. Maybe they should do some consultation work with "real" people and base the recommendations on the results and not rely on results from someone else's study which may or may not be accurate.
Posted by: Ian, Glasgow on 2:47pm Thu 26 Apr 07
'norma solidarity' (no political affiliation there?) writes about comments made on other websites. This has been a regular topic on message boards provided by English newspapers and other media outlets for a long, long time. Many of those messages express English outrage at the availability of 'special' treatment for Scottish cancer patients.
This poison is administered by yobs, journalists and Westminster politicians alike. Those are the people who have set the level of 'debate' for this election! In reality, there is no debate.
New Labour, unsurprisingly, refuses to answer any questions, treats the electorate with complete contempt and is determined, by any foul means, to cling to its power-base in Scotland while the Lib-Dems shake the sheets, rearrange the pillows and prepare the paraphernalia of the political prostitute.
Having lost my mother and a teenage daughter to cancer, I'm both outraged and enraged by politicians and others who would consider anything other than the well-being of the patient. The thought of it puts the stench of Blair in my nostrils!
I discovered what frauds New Labour are long before the current deluge of evidence against them.
During my daughter's illness, I approached Donald Dewar, the 'Father of the Scottish Parliament' (joke) and my constituency MP, for help with the provision of special facilities, at home. This was my first and last meeting with any politician.
His greeting was quite astonishing! He was running late, he said, so I could only have five minutes of his time. Some time later, I received a letter from his Westminster office telling me that he was powerless to help.
I had asked him to help me with the provision of extra toilet facilities to meet the special hygiene needs of a dying child. That request was beyond his power.
He was not so constrained when it came to the construction of a £450m New Labour gang-hut in Edinburgh!
'norma solidarity' (no political affiliation there?) writes about comments made on other websites. This has been a regular topic on message boards provided by English newspapers and other media outlets for a long, long time. Many of those messages express English outrage at the availability of 'special' treatment for Scottish cancer patients.
This poison is administered by yobs, journalists and Westminster politicians alike. Those are the people who have set the level of 'debate' for this election! In reality, there is no debate.
New Labour, unsurprisingly, refuses to answer any questions, treats the electorate with complete contempt and is determined, by any foul means, to cling to its power-base in Scotland while the Lib-Dems shake the sheets, rearrange the pillows and prepare the paraphernalia of the political prostitute.
Having lost my mother and a teenage daughter to cancer, I'm both outraged and enraged by politicians and others who would consider anything other than the well-being of the patient. The thought of it puts the stench of Blair in my nostrils!
I discovered what frauds New Labour are long before the current deluge of evidence against them.
During my daughter's illness, I approached Donald Dewar, the 'Father of the Scottish Parliament' (joke) and my constituency MP, for help with the provision of special facilities, at home. This was my first and last meeting with any politician.
His greeting was quite astonishing! He was running late, he said, so I could only have five minutes of his time. Some time later, I received a letter from his Westminster office telling me that he was powerless to help.
I had asked him to help me with the provision of extra toilet facilities to meet the special hygiene needs of a dying child. That request was beyond his power.
He was not so constrained when it came to the construction of a £450m New Labour gang-hut in Edinburgh!
Posted by: brian, london, england on 3:30pm Thu 26 Apr 07
From and English perspective i do find this sadly ironic. For a while now we english have been painfully aware that many of the cancer drugs available in scotland are not avialable in england. It seems our BRITISH health institutions ( please note that we do not have any ENGLISH instutitions like our own parlaiment, unlike you ) are only too ready to take the recommendations of NICE. In fact, the NICE recommendations may well be binding in england. NICE is a BRITISH institution that was set up by new labour to advise on health matters in britain. You in scotland can choose to ignore them if you wish, because your parlaiment is ultimately reponsible for health. It is not the English that are to blame, but this labour government and their dreadful asymetrical devloution settlement that was based not on democratic principles, but on a way secure power for themselves. We're better off without them and probably each other.
From and English perspective i do find this sadly ironic. For a while now we english have been painfully aware that many of the cancer drugs available in scotland are not avialable in england. It seems our BRITISH health institutions ( please note that we do not have any ENGLISH instutitions like our own parlaiment, unlike you ) are only too ready to take the recommendations of NICE. In fact, the NICE recommendations may well be binding in england. NICE is a BRITISH institution that was set up by new labour to advise on health matters in britain. You in scotland can choose to ignore them if you wish, because your parlaiment is ultimately reponsible for health. It is not the English that are to blame, but this labour government and their dreadful asymetrical devloution settlement that was based not on democratic principles, but on a way secure power for themselves. We're better off without them and probably each other.
Posted by: norma solidarity, moray on 3:35pm Thu 26 Apr 07
Ian, you're right - I do have an obvious political affiliation! The point I was making was that people are getting steamed up about whether or not Labour or the SNP would make the 'better' government - when, in actual fact they will both be awful. I believe politicians need to get their priorities right - and the story you've just told us - as well as the one told us by Louise McF - are stories worth getting worked up about. I just couldn't care less if one party or another is ahead in the polls and whether or not this calls for boycotting newspapers of every persuasion but I do care when bureaucrats tell us what medicine we can have based on cost considerations and not health considerations. Let's all get angry about this!! Let's all demand that our politicians do something about it!!
Ian, you're right - I do have an obvious political affiliation! The point I was making was that people are getting steamed up about whether or not Labour or the SNP would make the 'better' government - when, in actual fact they will both be awful. I believe politicians need to get their priorities right - and the story you've just told us - as well as the one told us by Louise McF - are stories worth getting worked up about. I just couldn't care less if one party or another is ahead in the polls and whether or not this calls for boycotting newspapers of every persuasion but I do care when bureaucrats tell us what medicine we can have based on cost considerations and not health considerations. Let's all get angry about this!! Let's all demand that our politicians do something about it!!
Posted by: Ian, Glasgow on 12:14am Fri 27 Apr 07
Brian,
Like most people, I can't see why such treatment is denied to anyone in the UK. That's neither a political nor a parochial viewpoint. I'd imagine, too, that there are a great many people who are more 'painfully aware' of the consequences than either of us. All this English, Scottish, British stuff has absolutely no bearing on the matter. I mentioned English reaction, in my previous message, because I couldn't understand how anyone in England could call for an end to the availability of such treatment for Scots as a humane solution. What you should do is take the matter up with the near 600 members of the Westminster Parliament who claim to represent your interests. There are an awful lot of English MPs down there! What the **** do they do for a living?
Brian,
Like most people, I can't see why such treatment is denied to anyone in the UK. That's neither a political nor a parochial viewpoint. I'd imagine, too, that there are a great many people who are more 'painfully aware' of the consequences than either of us. All this English, Scottish, British stuff has absolutely no bearing on the matter. I mentioned English reaction, in my previous message, because I couldn't understand how anyone in England could call for an end to the availability of such treatment for Scots as a humane solution. What you should do is take the matter up with the near 600 members of the Westminster Parliament who claim to represent your interests. There are an awful lot of English MPs down there! What the **** do they do for a living?
Posted by: Ian, Glasgow on 12:21am Fri 27 Apr 07
The word that was obliterated from my previous message was neither obscene nor, generally, offensive. It was, simply, another name for Hades.
The word that was obliterated from my previous message was neither obscene nor, generally, offensive. It was, simply, another name for Hades.
Posted by: Ian, Glasgow on 12:28am Fri 27 Apr 07
Norma,
None of us can know in advance how well our elected representatives will perform in government but it's, surely, impossible to overlook a proven record of failure, fraud and deceit.
New Labour and the Lib-Dem parasites must go, whatever the cost!
Norma,
None of us can know in advance how well our elected representatives will perform in government but it's, surely, impossible to overlook a proven record of failure, fraud and deceit.
New Labour and the Lib-Dem parasites must go, whatever the cost!
Posted by: brian, london, england on 1:31pm Fri 27 Apr 07
ian
re: "I mentioned English reaction, in my previous message, because I couldn't understand how anyone in England could call for an end to the availability of such treatment for Scots as a humane solution."
We don't want to end the avialability of your drugs we just want to be able to have the same drugs.
re: "What you should do is take the matter up with the near 600 members of the Westminster Parliament who claim to represent your interests."
maybe i could take it up with our first minister, gordon brown.
ian
re: "I mentioned English reaction, in my previous message, because I couldn't understand how anyone in England could call for an end to the availability of such treatment for Scots as a humane solution."
We don't want to end the avialability of your drugs we just want to be able to have the same drugs.
re: "What you should do is take the matter up with the near 600 members of the Westminster Parliament who claim to represent your interests."
maybe i could take it up with our first minister, gordon brown.
Posted by: elizabeth, California on 3:21am Sat 28 Apr 07
may I ask who made THEM gods, to decide who should live and die, when there is medication to help those who ever need it. Thats the kind of thing that is done in the states, if you have money to pay its OK. If you are Mexican its OK (as they get anything they want for free), but if you are in the working classes and pay taxes, then the be alls will let you know that the medication is unavailable.
may I ask who made THEM gods, to decide who should live and die, when there is medication to help those who ever need it. Thats the kind of thing that is done in the states, if you have money to pay its OK. If you are Mexican its OK (as they get anything they want for free), but if you are in the working classes and pay taxes, then the be alls will let you know that the medication is unavailable.
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