KADCYLA : TOO COSTLY BY HALF.

Some people seem to think that the NHS is nothing but a bottomless pit which has to spend whatever is asked on whatever they want.

The drug 'giant' Roche' has recently developed a new product which they've named 'Kadcyla'. It is claimed that this drug can extend the lives of some breast cancer sufferers by an average of just under 6 months at a cost of £90,000 per patient; unsurprisingly, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has refused to recommend that the NHS makes this drug available except in specific instances. Equally unsurprisingly, the breast cancer lobby is not happy.

Breast cancer is always a very emotive subject and any refusal to treat patients with the latest wonder drug is always publicised as an assault upon 'women's rights' or some such nonsense. Regardless of the cost, lobby groups demand that everything possible has to be done to extend the lives of sufferers by a year, a few months, weeks or even days. They pay no attention to the myriad of other demands placed on the NHS and think only of what they want; they give no thought as to the source of the NHS's funds but simply demand that whatever they want must be provided.

Such issues occur regularly but nearly always in relation to women's health; it is rare if not unheard of for anyone to make vociferous demands in respect of men. Why is this ? Why is it that women's health is treated as being such a 'high-profile' matter while men's is largely ignored, other than for an occasional mention of prostate cancer, a killer for which I've yet to hear of any ludicrously expensive drugs being developed ?

To demand that the NHS should spend close to £100,000 per patient in order to provide less than 6 months of life, the quality of which may be debatable, is madness. The people who are making such demands need to wake up to the realities of the world and understand that just wanting something doesn't mean they can have it. Or are they really so infantile in their outlook that they can't even see this simple piece of common sense ?