Divert money from Herceptin, says radiotherapy leader
pharmafile | November 30, 2007 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Money currently being spent on Herceptin for breast cancer patients could be better spent on providing radiotherapy, a leader in the field has claimed.
Dr Peter Kirkbride, the national clinical lead for radiotherapy, has spoken out against the high cost of Herceptin, which he said has only benefited around 500 patients, costing about £200,000 each.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's The Investigation he said diverting the money could help cure more patients.
"There is a lot of publicity about the role of chemotherapy, but the consensus is of all cancers that are cured, half are cured by surgeries, 40% by radiotherapy, and only 10% by drugs."
He added: "If I was to spent £100 million on radiotherapy, I could buy something like 90 machines, I could buy 30 simulators and I could probably benefit about 30,000 patients for the same amount of money."
Other radiotherapists are also reporting a fall in investment in equipment, which they say will hold back advances in treatment.
Dr Kirkbride said part of the problem was that the area was not glamorous enough: "We don't have pharmaceutical companies backing us in the same way that some of the drug companies support campaigns for the use of drugs."
The NHS 'cancer czar' Professor Mike Richards said drugs and radiotherapy should be used in tandem to achieve the best results.
"There is no doubt that Herceptin is a good drug. There is no doubt that it has been looked at carefully by NICE and it has been deemed to be both effective and cost-effective," he said.
"Radiotherapy is also effective and we need to make sure that it's not one or the other, but that we actually have a service that delivers both."
The radio programme highlighted recent concerns that the UK still lags behind most other European countries in its rates of cancer survival.
Research published in the Lancet Oncology Journal in August found survival rates across a range of cancers were best in Sweden, Finland and Norway. Germany, France, Spain and Italy were close behind and the UK and Denmark had the worst rates.
Mike Richards is expected to publish an updated Cancer Reform Strategy for the NHS before the end of 2007.
