Mid Derbyshire MP fights for pancreatic cancer drug

Pauline Latham OBE, Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire, has delivered a petition to 10 Downing Street with the Pancreatic Cancer UK group, patients and families who have been affected by the disease.
By The Newsroom
Published 19th Dec 2014, 08:21 GMT
Pictured is Pauline Latham OBE, Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire, delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street, alongside Pancreatic Cancer UK, and patients and families who have been affected by the disease.Pictured is Pauline Latham OBE, Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire, delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street, alongside Pancreatic Cancer UK, and patients and families who have been affected by the disease.
Pictured is Pauline Latham OBE, Member of Parliament for Mid Derbyshire, delivering a petition to 10 Downing Street, alongside Pancreatic Cancer UK, and patients and families who have been affected by the disease.

The petition, with 2,165 signatures, calls on the Government and NHS decision-makers to recognise that pancreatic cancer has the worst survival outcomes of any of the 21 most common cancers. They also want to highlight that there are very few treatment options available and they want to make sure the chemotherapy drug Abraxane stays on the Cancer Drugs Fund list.

The Cancer Drugs Fund was initially designed to give patients in England access to effective treatments deemed too expensive for hospitals to fund. But, due to the number of drugs that have been added since 2010, the fund will now introduce price restrictions for the first time. Abraxane has been hailed as the biggest advance in almost 20 years in the fight against pancreatic cancer. Yet it has not been approved by the NHS watchdog NICE, depriving many patients from its potential life-extending benefits.

Mrs Latham, MP for Mid Derbyshire: said “I was pleased to be able to offer my support for pancreatic cancer patients.”

Related topics:NHSGovernmentEngland