Bid for cancer drug turned down
Updated on 27 March 2007
A grandmother accused health bosses of "euthanasia" after they turned down her final hope for a potentially life-giving drug.
Kathleen Devonport, who has kidney cancer, has had a long-running battle and hoped she would win an appeal for the drug Sutent to be prescribed on the NHS.
The 63-year-old has now been told by her local primary care trust bosses she cannot be treated with the drug.
Sutent can slow down the spread of cancer, shrink tumours and extend symptom-free life but has yet to be approved by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).
After losing her final appeal, Mrs Devonport, from Chilton, County Durham, said she now faces a bleak choice of either finding up to £30,000 to pay for a six-month course or see her condition deteriorate.
County Durham Primary Care Trust said it had taken the decision on the grounds of "clinical and cost-effectiveness".
Nine primary care trusts around England have agreed to fund treatment with Sutent, which is widely used in Europe and America, or a similar drug, Nexavar.
But after a top-level review, the Durham trust turned down Mrs Devonport's application and informed her by letter.
The mother-of-three said: "I don't know which way to turn. It is like euthanasia.
"They are withholding treatment from me.
"No timescale has been put on my condition but if you are ill and don't get treatment you are not going to get better."
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