CANCER campaigners last night claimed they were being left to die after learning that a string of treatments would not be funded by Oxfordshire health chiefs.

County-based Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients urged the Government to step in after discovering that key drugs would not be on offer for first-line renal cancer treatment.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice), which advises the NHS on drugs, said evidence of the benefits of Bevacizumab, Sorafenib and Temsirolimus, were not strong enough to justify NHS money.

Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust (PCT), which would have needed to spend up to £53,000 per patient each year on the medicine, last night welcomed the guidance – and said it was obliged to implement it.

It also emerged that Nice has decided not to recommend Sunitinib, which was recently approved as a first-line treatment, as a second option for people who have already tried other drugs unsuccessfully.

Clive Stone, founder of the Justice for Kidney Cancer Patients group, said the decision meant if cancer patients could not tolerate Sunitinib, or it had finished working, they were basically being left to die.

“Many of our group have died over the past two years,” he said. “I wonder how many would still be here had we not had to fight for so long?

“Now, we are stepping it up a gear. Our next campaign will be to try to persuade the Government to step in and make these drugs available.

“My wish would be to raise the bar for all cancer patients.”

The group, which campaigned to end the NHS postcode lottery over Sunitinib, is mobilising once again.

This time it is planning to take its fight to Westminster to try to change the way the Government reacts to Nice advice.

A Nice spokesman said: “The decisions Nice has to make are some of the hardest in public life.

“NHS resources are not limitless and Nice has to decide what treatments represent best value to the patient, as well as the NHS.”

A Department of Health spokesman refused to comment on the call by the campaign group for Government intervention, and added: “Nice performs a vital role in ensuring that the finite NHS budget provides the maximum benefit for all patients.”

A PCT spokesman said: “The PCT welcomes the guidance published by Nice following its appraisal of the evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness. We are obliged to implement Nice guidlines.”

"How can they sleep at night?"

JENNY Wheeler, whose husband Jim died last May, says she will fight on. Mr Wheeler, from Kidlington, died days after being refused Sunitinib as he was not considered an exceptional case.

His widow said: “I had to take a step back from the fight after Jim passed away. It was very difficult watching people dying. I was close to a breakdown and I had to have a few months out.

“But he told me before he died he wanted me to fight on, so that’s what I plan to do. When I heard about the latest decision it knocked me for six.

“I don’t know how these people can sleep at night knowing they’re leaving people to die.

“But now I’m stronger, I’m prepared for the fight.”Stephen Dallison, above, of Iffley Road, Oxford, died on Saturday, May 23 – just hours after marrying his fiancée Olivia. Mr Dallison was the first person to campaign against the postcode lottery which denied cancer victims the life-extending drug Sunitinib on the NHS in Oxfordshire. He was eventually prescribed the drug, but last night his widow asked what might have happened if he had been given it sooner.

Mrs Dallison said: “The drug gave me a lot longer with Steve. But once it stopped working, you do need to try as many as you can. Everyone has paid into the NHS, so you should be able to call on it when you most need it.”

Stephen Dallison

Stephen Dallison, of Iffley Road, Oxford, died on Saturday, May 23 – just hours after marrying his fiancée Olivia. Mr Dallison was the first person to campaign against the postcode lottery which denied cancer victims the life-extending drug Sunitinib on the NHS in Oxfordshire. He was eventually prescribed the drug, but last night his widow asked what might have happened if he had been given it sooner.

Mrs Dallison said: “The drug gave me a lot longer with Steve. But once it stopped working, you do need to try as many as you can. Everyone has paid into the NHS, so you should be able to call on it when you most need it.”

Stephen dallison Stephen Dallison, above, of Iffley Road, Oxford, died on Saturday, May 23 – just hours after marrying his fiancée Olivia. Mr Dallison was the first person to campaign against the postcode lottery which denied cancer victims the life-extending drug Sunitinib on the NHS in Oxfordshire. He was eventually prescribed the drug, but last night his widow asked what might have happened if he had been given it sooner.

Mrs Dallison said: “The drug gave me a lot longer with Steve. But once it stopped working, you do need to try as many as you can. Everyone has paid into the NHS, so you should be able to call on it when you most need it.”

awilliams@oxfordmail.co.uk