UK's NICE again refuses Nexavar for liver cancer patients

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises on treatments under the National Health Service in England and Wales has again, proposed to deny German drug major Bayer's Nexavar (sorafenib) for the treatment of advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) - a form of liver cancer. Nexavar is the only systemic treatment option that could potentially extend the survival of these patients.

Cases of liver cancer have almost tripled over the last three decades according to figures recently published by Cancer Research UK. In 1975 there were 865 cases of primary liver cancer and in 2006 that had risen to 3,108 in the UK. HCC accounts for 80-90% of these primary liver cancers, the drugmaker noted.

Harpreet Wasan, Medical Oncologist at Hammersmith Hospital, Imperial College, London, said: 'Other than sorafenib, every systemic treatment that has been evaluated in advanced HCC, has failed to significantly extend survival. Today's decision, unless reversed, puts us in a unique situation in cancer where we are left with nothing to offer advanced HCC patients apart from supportive and palliative care, thus denying them the life-preserving benefits of modern treatments. This is a devastating blow to patients and their families who will be robbed of precious time together. It is also painfully disheartening for British oncologists, many of whom were involved in the trials for this drug as they, effectively, will not be able to prescribe it.'

Graeme Poston, an eminent liver surgeon on behalf of the Hepatobiliary UK Group, who is also president-plect of the Association of Upper Gastrointestinal Surgeons, said: "I am naturally disappointed that NICE appears to have not taken into account the views of leading healthcare professionals in the field. The Hepatobiliary UK Group of doctors who specialize in treatment of HCC recently launched national guidelines for the UK which clearly state that sorafenib is the standard of care for patients with advanced HCC for whom no potential curative option is available. With this decision, physicians in the UK will be unable to provide the best possible care for their HCC patients, even though sorafenib treatment is readily available to patients in other parts of the world.''