NHS hospitals in England to ditch life-boosting breast cancer pill as bosses try to cut costs

BREAST cancer patients in England will be denied a life-extending drug widely available in Scotland and Wales.

NHS spending watchdog NICE rejected £3,000- a-month Afinitor on the grounds that it is “not cost-effective”.

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It has been available in England since 2013.

From February around 1,500 newly-diagnosed breast cancer patients will not get it.

But those already on it will continue to receive it.

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Trials showed Afinitor can extend survival by 11 months of patients with HER-2 negative cancer that has not responded to other treatments.

Around 75 per cent of breast tumours are HER2 negative.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, of Breast Cancer Now, said: “This is a huge blow.”

The decision means, for the first time, an effective breast cancer drug will be available in Wales and Scotland but not in England.

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