Cancer survival cut because side effects are not treated
Almost one in three cancer patients in Britain have
their chances of surviving the disease cut because specialists reduce
their chemotherapy dosage when white blood cell counts fall, rather than
give a growth factor that stimulates production of white blood cells.
This was one of the key findings of an audit of
cancer treatment centres sponsored by Amgen, which makes the growth factor
— granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF).
The author of the study, Dr Robert Thomas, a consultant
oncologist at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, attributes failure to
use G-CSF to a lack of National Health Service funding. He says that only
6 per cent of breast cancer patients and 8 per cent of lymphoma patients
in Britain receives G-CSF, compared to 20 per cent in Europe and up to
33 per cent in the United States.
Dr Thomas estimates that as many as a third of the
12,000 British breast cancer patients each year would benefit from treatment
with G-CSF, which costs about £1,000 per patient. These 4,000 people each
have their chemotherapy reduced to below 85 per cent of the treatment
they should receive because of low white cell counts. An Italian study
has shown that half of all patients who receive at least 85 per cent of
optimum therapy are alive and free of relapses after 20 years. When treatment
falls below 85 per cent of the ideal dose, survival and freedom from relapse
falls below 30 per cent.
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