{"id":101416,"date":"2025-08-29T18:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101416\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T18:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:32:09","slug":"men-condemned-to-die-as-nhs-wont-buy-cheap-prostate-cancer-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/101416\/","title":{"rendered":"Men \u2018condemned to die\u2019 as NHS won\u2019t buy cheap prostate cancer drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of men with prostate cancer are being \u201ccondemned to die\u201d because the NHS in England is refusing to pay for a cheap drug, charities say.<\/p>\n

About 8,400 men with high-risk prostate cancer would benefit from abiraterone, a drug which reduces the risk of cancer returning by 50 per cent and improves survival rates by 40 per cent.<\/p>\n

The drug costs less than \u00a32.50 per day, but NHS England said it did not have the budget to pay for it, even though abiraterone is available to patients in Scotland and Wales.<\/p>\n

Prostate Cancer UK said 13 men a week died avoidably as a result of the \u201cbureaucratic quagmire\u201d over NHS budgets. The charity urged Wes Streeting<\/a>, the health secretary, to intervene.<\/p>\n

Abiraterone blocks the production of testosterone, a hormone which fuels prostate tumours. The drug was made available on the NHS in 2012 as a life-extending treatment for men with incurable aggressive prostate cancer that had already spread.<\/p>\n

A major trial in 2022 revealed it could also stop the disease progressing in men with aggressive prostate cancer that had not yet spread, who had it diagnosed at an earlier stage. The trial showed it would save 672 lives a year if the NHS made it available for this cohort of 8,400 men each year. Research also suggests abiraterone would save the NHS \u00a35,000 a year per patient by reducing treatment costs associated with the cancer spreading.<\/p>\n

But because the drug is off patent, meaning generic versions can be made cheaply, the NHS has a complicated process for approving it and claims it cannot afford to roll it out. <\/p>\n

\u2022 British cancer patients will suffer \u2018unless NHS pays more for drugs\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

Amy Rylance, of Prostate Cancer UK, said \u201cbureaucratic blockages\u201d were holding up approval of the drug, which was \u201cstuck in no man\u2019s land, where everybody seems to say it\u2019s somebody else\u2019s fault\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Abiraterone<\/p>\n

Turner said he was livid that men unable to afford abiraterone would die as a result of a \u201cbureaucratic nightmare\u201d<\/p>\n

GILES TURNER<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIn the two years that England has delayed making this decision, over 1,300 men have been condemned to die from prostate cancer. Some 13 men a week are dying from a cancer that could have been easily and cheaply cured. Abiraterone costs \u00a32.37 a day. In these really high risk men, it is curative. It is saving these men\u2019s lives. It\u2019s preventing their cancer from coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rylance said one of the most frustrating aspects was that the Stampede trial, which proved abiraterone saved lives, was held in England. \u201cOther parts of the world are taking our science and applying it, and we\u2019re not,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nick James, of the Institute of Cancer Research, London, said the drug had been discovered there and \u201c trialled across England, but English men are the ones missing out now\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Breakthrough will spare prostate cancer patients needless treatment<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the expiry of the abiraterone patent in October 2022, the cost of this life-extending drug has reduced dramatically,\u201d he said. \u201cPreviously costing around \u00a33,000 per month, the availability of generic versions means the price has dropped to around \u00a377 per pack. <\/p>\n

\u201cThose living in Scotland and Wales can receive the treatment free. But the NHS in England has previously decided that it would be too expensive to offer the drug, and its guidance has not changed since the price of the drug has been slashed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a ludicrous situation and NHS England needs to get a grip of it now, in order to ensure the men who need this life-extending drug can access it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Men in England can pay for abiraterone privately and some have emptied their life savings to do so, knowing it will \u201chelp keep them alive\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Portrait<\/p>\n

Keith ter Braak, 81, had prostate cancer diagnosed in 2019 and has spent about \u00a380,000 on obtaining abiraterone privately. \u201cI wanted to use those savings for me and my wife and our old age. If I was living in Scotland or Wales I would get it free. Abiraterone is keeping me alive, it stops the production of testosterone which is fuel for my cancer.<\/a> It is such a stupid false economy for the NHS to not give it to us to stop the cancer spreading \u2014 they are the ones who will have to pay to treat us if the cancer spreads.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giles Turner, 65, a retired banker in Sussex, has spent \u00a320,000 on abiraterone since he had high-risk prostate cancer diagnosed in March 2023. \u201cThe treatment has been successful. I am in remission,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m very lucky that I can afford it. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m livid that there are thousands more men who should be on this treatment who are not, and some of them will die as a result. Men\u2019s lives are being caught up in a bureaucratic nightmare. The government needs to take responsibility and sort it out.\u201d <\/p>\n

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men and there are 56,000 cases and 12,000 deaths each year in the UK. <\/p>\n

NHS England said: \u201cExpanding access to abiraterone for this particular type of prostate cancer was identified as one of the top priorities following a clinically-led review. But the NHS can only offer this treatment once the necessary recurrent funding is available, and this is being kept under active review.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of men with prostate cancer are being \u201ccondemned to die\u201d because the NHS in England is refusing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":101417,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-101416","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101416\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/101417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}