TRIAL results described as a "milestone" in prostate cancer treatment are set to spark a fresh row over NHS access to new drugs.
Enzalutamide blocks molecular signals driving prostate cancer, and was shown to improve survival by almost 30% in men not given chemotherapy. It also delayed the progress of advanced cancers that have ceased to respond to other treatments by 80%.
The news, broken at a meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in San Francisco, prompted demands for a U-turn from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence.
Nice, which vets the cost effectiveness of NHS treatments in England and Wales, provoked anger by revising its draft guidance on enzalutamide.
It decided men outwith Scotland should not qualify for the drug if they had previously been treated with the new-generation prostate cancer drug abiraterone, but now Nice is under pressure to review its guidance again.
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