AT A time when new cancer drugs are coming on to the market at incredible speed, it is unsurprising that those holding the purse strings in our hospitals are perhaps more than a little perturbed.
Cancer charities say it should be doctors who decide whether a patient gets a drug – not finance departments.
But there are also fears that the UK could move towards an American model, where doctors believe they must try one drug after another in
a never-ending search for a cure.
Yesterday, The Scotsman reported concerns from a leading cancer expert, Professor John Smyth of Edinburgh University, that new doctors increasingly believed that if one pill did not work, they had to try another one and then another after that.
This comes at the expense of early access to palliative care, to help patients make the most of life in the period leading up to death.
Cancer charity experts believe this may become less of an issue in years to come as scientific advances allow increasingly accurate predictions of who will respond to treatment.
One bowel cancer specialist said: "We are gradually moving towards a system where we will be able to predict which patients will respond to treatment and which won't.
"We will also be able to see at a much earlier stage if a patient is responding.
"This ultimately means resources can be directed to where they are most needed."
Scientists, including teams in Edinburgh, are already developing tests to predict which patients will have the best reaction to drugs.
So rather than trying drug after drug, doctors will try only the medication they expect to work.
But whatever the future holds, charities are clear about who should decide which drugs a patient receives.
"The money men should not control these things," the specialist said.
"It has to be down to the doctors in consultation with the patient."
The full article contains 324 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
