article_snippet: Thousands of cancer sufferers will lose out on ‘last chance’ drugs after the NHS withdrew approval for Thousands of cancer sufferers use.
article_snippet: The £280million-a-year Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) which began in April 2011 has led to around 55,000 patients in England getting drugs banned on the NHS by Nice, the rationing body, or awaiting approval.
article_snippet: The Government's aim, which was a Tory election pledge, was to enable the NHS doctors to prescribe any drug if NHS doctors believed a cancer patient could benefit.
article_snippet: Mark Flannagan, chief executive of the charity Beating Bowel Cancer, said ‘Mark Flannagan, chief executive of the charity
article_snippet: Beating Bowel Cancer need to hold the Government and the Prime Minister to account for what has happened.
article_snippet: ‘the Prime Minister needs to justify why the Prime Minister no longer believes doctors should be able to prescribe the drugs doctors think will benefit doctors patients.
article_snippet: the Prime Minister said ‘Cancer treatment shouldn’t be about luck.
article_snippet: ‘From yesterday, any patients who faces an unfortunate diagnosis of advanced cancer will no longer be able to benefit from the treatments that have been removed from the CDF.
article_snippet: It should have been an exercise in what is important to patients and how to improve outcomes for cancer patients.
article_snippet: Zaltrap said ‘This de-listing decision will significantly restrict patient choice – thus inevitably widening the gap in survival for English patients with colorectal cancer compared with the rest of the world.
article_snippet: Zaltrap said ‘I am shocked that men in England cannot get the same drugs as men in other European countries, especially when we have a Cancer Drugs Fund to supposedly pay for men in England.
article_snippet: A spokesman for England said ‘NHS cancer doctors on the CDF panel have taken a careful look at how we ensure A spokesman for NHS England drugs available offer the best clinical benefit, getting the most for patients from every pound.'