" Cancer Research UK is upset at the consequences of the accommodation not to adjust the drug available to patients blot out malignant pleural mesothelioma unless they are bewitching allotment ascendancy a clinical trial.
" We own present asked the Ok Appraisal Committee to reconsider the cost - power evaluations on which they based their recommendations. We posses further written to the Secretary of State for Health, Patricia Hewitt, outlining our concerns.
" Alimta is the by oneself licensed therapy for the treatment of unresectable malignant pleural mesothelioma influence the UK. The treatment has been shown to ameliorate survival influence randomised catastrophe and is used throughout the apple. Ascendancy July 2005 the Scottish Medicines Consortium recommended that Alimta copy used within NHS Scotland.
" Mesothelioma is one of the deadliest of cancers and the severe agony associated with this disease is terribly difficult to control.
" The majority of mesothelioma cases are as a result of workplace negligence and, as such, we believe that patients should be entitled to the best care available. Without drugs to relieve their symptoms patients are unable to achieve any sort of quality of life in the short time frequently afforded to them.
" The mesothelioma epidemic will peak between 2010 and 2015 and the number of cases will then decline as the result of the ban on asbestos exposure. It would seem perverse to deny patients access to Alimta over this brief period. It is very unlikely that any effective alternative therapy for mesothelioma will become available before the epidemic declines. "