The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) now agrees that abiraterone is affordable.
It had previously said the treatment was not cost-effective for the NHS until cancers were more advanced.
The drug costs £3,000 a month, but a lower price has been agreed with the manufacturer Janssen.
Janssen also submitted fresh data about the drug's effectiveness to NICE.
Abiraterone,
also known as Zytiga, is a hormone therapy, and unlike chemotherapy
which kills the cancerous cells, it stops more testosterone from
reaching the prostate gland to stifle the tumor.
Instead, patients in England had to rely on their doctors applying to
the Cancer Drugs Fund, a special pot set aside for cancer drugs not
routinely available on the NHS.
Now NICE says the new evidence
submitted by Janssen means it can offer the drug to more patients -
those with spreading prostate cancer who have only mild symptoms and who
have not responded to androgen deprivation therapy and have not yet
been offered chemotherapy.
It is estimated that 5,900 people with this category of prostate cancer might be eligible each year in England.
Prof
Carole Longson, from NICE, said: "There are few treatments available
for patients at this stage of prostate cancer so this is very good
news."
Heather Blake, from Prostate Cancer UK, said: "This long
awaited decision is fantastic news and brings an end to years of
uncertainty for men and their loved ones. After 18 months our calls have
finally been heard as NICE and the manufacturer have managed to
negotiate a way forward. However it cannot continue to take so
ludicrously long to get men what they need."
This site is for information on the various Chemo treatments and Stem Cell Therapies since 1992. This journey became bitter sweet in 2014, with the passing of my beautiful and dear wife. Sherry, had fought Non - Hodgkins Lymphoma(NHL) since 1990, in and out of remissions time and time again. From T-Cell therapies(1990's) to Dual Cord Blood Transplant(2014), she was in Clinical Trials over the years. This site is for informational purpose only and is not to promote the use of certain therapies.
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