Health: Cancer

Lord Alderdice Excerpts

Tuesday 10th May 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I pay tribute, first of all, to the James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer, which is an organisation that I know quite well, as the noble Lord is aware. It is doing tremendous work, not least in the field of specialist cancer nursing but also as regards its care line, on which I congratulate it. The noble Lord asked whether I would agree to meet the fund. For my own part I would be very happy to do so, but it may be more appropriate for my colleague in the department, who deals with cancer services, to do so as well. We recognise that more needs to be done to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of rarer cancers such as kidney cancer. Our strategy for cancer sets out our commitment to work with a number of cancer-focused charities. Officials have already met such charities and more meetings are planned over the summer.

[Lord Alderdice]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Davies, raised the question of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence approval of chemotherapeutic drugs. After a nephrectomy, not much else is available, because radiotherapy is generally not terribly helpful in renal cell carcinoma and other cancers of the kidney. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has to look, with these often quite expensive drugs, at how much benefit is being achieved for the cost of the drug. It is not an easy decision, which is why the noble Lord, Lord Davies, raised the question of some non-approved drugs. Is the Minister satisfied about the judgments being made by NICE about the benefit as against the cost? They are difficult judgments, but is he satisfied with the judgments being made?

[Earl Howe]

I am grateful to my noble friend. He is absolutely right; these are very difficult decisions to make. NICE issues final guidance on the use of a drug only after very careful consideration of the evidence and wide consultation with stakeholders. The noble Lord, Lord Davies, and, I am sure, my noble friend will be aware that one particular drug has been refused or not recommended by NICE. However, we have established the cancer drugs fund, which will enable individual clinicians on a patient-by-patient basis to apply to access drugs even though they have not been recommended by NICE.