Britain's NHS Shifts Stance On Prostate Cancer Drug

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE)  in Britain has changed its stance on the advanced prostate cancer drug enzalutamide. The drug has been proven to extend the life of advanced prostate cancer patients anywhere from 5 to 18 months and will now be available to thousands of men suffering from advanced prostate cancer.

In October of 2013, the drug was recommended for NHS funding. However, in January, the NHS issued a guidance draft that stated the drug would not be available to patients in England and Wales who had previously been treated with another new drug — abiraterone.

Critics said that NHS was denying prostate cancer drugs to the group most in need — those that had run out of treatment options —  because of enzalutamide’s cost. The move led to public backlash, and over 13,500 people signed a Prostate Cancer UK campaign to make the drug available to all patients that need it. Researchers have said that enzalutamide has the potential to turn prostate cancer into a chronic illness by combining the drug with other treatments. About 10,500 men in Britain have advanced prostate cancer that does not respond to traditional cancer treatments.

Professor Carole Longson, Center for Health Technology Evaluation Director at NICE, commented on why the institution was changing its stance. “During consultation on the draft recommendations for using enzalutamide, we received a number of responses, including data and comments from the manufacturer of the drug, professional organizations and patient groups,” she said. “Due to this additional information we now know that, at the moment, evidence on the effectiveness of enzalutamide when given after abiraterone is too uncertain to make a definitive evidence-based recommendation, so we have not done so.” However, she says the drug is recommended for treatment in patients that continued to suffer from cancer following cytotoxic chemotherapy.

Prostate cancer patient advocates, such as those at Prostate Cancer UK, have welcomed the decision, but said that they still want assurances that men who have run out of treatment options will get the drug.

The drug, which is taken in pill form, has been made available for patients at a reduced  price through a patient access scheme, NICE says. The drug also underwent a key trial at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) and the Royal Marsden Hospital in London.