Cancer victim Stephen Dallison is angry that NHS staff spend £11m on management costs while denying him a £2,500 drug to fight his terminal illness.

The 31-year-old, who has been given 12 months to live without the treatment, is appalled that Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust spends £900,000 a month on administration but has turned down his request for Sunitinib three times.

The costs, which were for 2006/7 are high compared to neighbouring PCTs. Berkshire West spent £1.2m on administration during the same year, while Buckinghamshire spent £9m.

Mr Dallison, of Iffley Road, East Oxford, said: "This really makes me feel as if the PCT hasn't got its priorities straight.

"But I don't intend to give up. I'll fight to the death and keep going until they give this drug to me and others."

Scientist Mr Dallison, who works at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, near Didcot, was diagnosed with kidney cancer in July.

Despite having the diseased tissue removed the illness returned and doctors believe Sunitinib is the best treatment to extend his life.

Given through a four-week course of injections, it works by preventing more tumours growing while cutting off the blood supply to the existing cancer.

Mr Dallison is now waiting for his appeal case to be heard. Although he has demanded the case is heard in the next two weeks, he believes PCT managers are witholding vital information needed for his application.

His case is being supported by Kate Spall of the Pamela Northcott Fund, which campaigns for patients to have the drug on the NHS.

She said the PCT would only have to pay £5,000 for three months' treatment, before doctors could re-scan Mr Dallison to assess whether the drug was working, because Sunitinib manufacturer Pfizer, had offered all NHS patients a free first dose.

She added: "Spending £11m on management costs seems an incredibly top-heavy amount when you're in the position of denying patients £5,000 for a life-extending drug.

"Of course you have to pay for managers, but it's about how they do their jobs and how effectively they run an organisation, and this PCT is failing its patients."

A PCT spokesman said management costs were calculated according to a Department of Health definition based on staff costs, and Oxfordshire's £11m spend made up 1.6 per cent of its overall £696m budget.

She added: "In order for the PCT to fund Sunitinib, there must be some unusual or unique clinical factor about the patient that suggests they're significantly different to the general group of patients with the same condition, and likely to gain significantly more benefit from the treatment than might be expected from the average patient with the condition."