Campigners fighting for the right to receive the life-extending drug Sunitinib reacted with frustration last night after discovering they could have to wait until next summer for a final decision on whether to prescribe it on the NHS.

Yesterday, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence — the NHS’s drug rationing body — announced it had delayed its decision after receiving “additional evidence” from Pfizer, the manufacturer of Sunitinib, which found the drug doubled average survival rates for kidney cancer sufferers from 14 to 28 months.

Nice had been due to publish its final guidance on the drug in January, but the new evidence, which emerged during the consultation period following the publication of draft guidance in August, will delay publication for months.

Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients chairman Clive Stone, from Freeland, near Witney, said Pfizer’s research gave “a glimmer of hope” to the campaign group’s members, who were left devastated after Nice’s draft guidance ruled the drug too expensive for NHS prescription.

But he said: “On the other side of the equation it creates further delay and uncertainty.”

Mother-of-two Jenny Wheeler, whose husband Jim, 57, died from kidney cancer in May after Oxfordshire PCT refused to prescribe the drug, added: “People need help before it’s too late. I am disgusted with the whole thing.”

Kidney cancer sufferer Andy Crabb, 50, from Abingdon, said: “It could be fantastic news, but I am not getting my hopes up.”

Mr Crabb has been paying £3,300 every six weeks to receive Sunintib since May, after the PCT refused to prescribe the drug. He praised everybody who had helped raise the money as “fantastic” but feared he would have to sell his house next year if the drug did not become available on the NHS soon.

Until Nice publishes its final guidance, it is up to primary care trusts whether to prescribe Sunitinib. Neither Oxfordshire PCT and Pfizer were happy at the delay.

David Dunbar, the PCT’s healthcare priorities practitioner, said: “We are disappointed the appraisal process has been extended, but we understand it is important to ensure final guidance on any new treatment is based upon a thorough examination of all the medical research evidence.”