Cancer patients won the chance to question Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust over its policy of not prescribing the life-extending drug Sunitinib — but left empty-handed.

Yesterday, 10 campaigners representing Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients met PCT chief executive Andrea Young and Dr Ljuba Stirzaker, consultant in healthcare priorities, in a face-to-face showdown at the PCT's headquarters in Cowley, Oxford.

Led by Clive Stone, 60, from Freeland, near Witney, the Oxfordshire campaign group demanded answers to 27 questions submitted earlier in the week.

Mr Stone, who thanked the PCT for agreeing to meet, said: "We wanted people to know the facts."

However, he said the ultimate goal of persuading the trust to review its policy of only prescribing Sunitinib in exceptional circumstances was unlikely.

He added: "The meeting went as expected. They won't budge.

"I pushed them a lot on why other PCTs had taken the decision to fund the drug and the so-called postcode lottery.

"They said they had very difficult decisions to make, no more than that."

Mr Stone said new research in the United States and at University Hospital in Birmingham — where Sunitinib is regularly prescribed — suggested the drug extended life a great deal longer than the six months estimated by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice).

Mr Stone also said the group was surprised that during the PCT meeting in December last year, when its policy on Sunitinib was formed, there was no oncologist present.

He said: "It's appalling. They said they found an oncologist, but he wasn't available.

"It's incredible."

Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients was formed after Nice published draft guidance last month banning four kidney cancer drugs from the NHS, including Sunitinib.

Until Nice — which decides if drugs should be paid for by the NHS — publishes its final guidance on the drugs in January, individual PCTs must decide whether to fund the drug.

In Oxfordshire, cancer sufferer Andy Crabb, 49, from Abingdon, who attended the meeting, was forced to pay for Sunitinib after the PCT refused to prescribe the drug.

He said it had given him a new lease of life.

Stephen Dallison, 34, from Oxford, also said the drug had worked wonders.

Mr Dallison remains the only kidney cancer patient in the county to have successfully appealed against the PCT's decision not to prescribe the drug.

PCT spokesman Sarah Bergin said: "We recognise this is a deeply emotive issue, but as an organisation we have to adhere to a process for funding treatments that are not approved for routine use in the NHS.

"We eagerly await guidance from Nice."