‘Postcode lottery’ still cause of many lung cancer deaths
pharmafile | December 3, 2014 | News story | Research and Development, Sales and Marketing | DoH, Roche, astranzeneca, lung cancer, nlca, oncology, pd-1
Patients are still pointlessly dying of lung cancer due to a ‘postcode lottery’ of services according to new results from the National Cancer Audit (NLCA).
Its findings show that there remains a marked variation in critical care across the various Trusts and Networks in Great Britain.
Collecting data on 39,203 patients across the UK, the audit reveals that although measures of the overall standard have been sustained or in some cases improved, there still remains a variation in the provision of surgery in advanced and incurable diseases.
Dr Ian Woolhouse, co-clinical lead at NLCA, says: “Whilst there have been important improvements in a number of areas of lung cancer care, this annual report demonstrates that there is still some way to go to reduce variation in key treatments such as lung cancer surgery which is likely to have the biggest impact on survival.”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths globally with around 1.5 million each year, according to the World Health Organization.
For patients not eligible or able to have surgery but can receive radiotherapy, surgical treatment represents the best chance of cure of the disease. The amount of patients with early stage lung cancer who receive surgery varies from 33% to 63% when measured at Network level – with even more deviation at Trust level.
“Over the 10 years of the National Lung Cancer Audit we have definitely seen improvements in the standards of care for lung cancer patients and these are now leading to improvements in survival,” says Dr Mick Peake, clinical Lead, National Lung Cancer Audit.
“However, it is clear that not every patient in every area of the country is receiving optimal care, so our job is not yet done.”
Pharma’s part to play has also been involved in the debate, it provides patients with cancer therapy treatment within an expensive and jam-packed drugs market that can cost up to £90,000 for a course.
One market area that is set to intensify over the coming months is the race for a PD-1 therapeutic vaccine. In a recent trial Bristol-Myers Squibb’s new drug Opdivo (nivolumab) was found to keep 41% of lung cancer patients alive after one year’s treatment.
Already approved in Japan for melanoma, the medicine was given to patients with advanced squamous cell non-small cell lung cancer (NSLC) who have progressed after at least two prior systemic treatments.
Both Roche and AstraZeneca have PD-1 inhibitors in the pipeline. And Merck, who recently teamed up with rival pharma Pfizer to develop a new combination treatment for various non-small cell lung cancers, saw its own PD-1 drug Keytruda (pembrolizumab) gain US approval back in September.
The Department of Health (DOH) recently announced a £50 million investment in early cancer diagnostics after the results of an investigation found that half of GPs are prevented from directly referring suspected cancer patients for scans.
Tom Robinson
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