IT鈥橲 tantalising news for people in Europe. A trial of a cancer drug called palbociclib has gone well, but it鈥檚 only available in the US.
鈥淏reast Cancer Now voiced concerns that the $10,000 price tag will stop the NHS from funding the drug鈥�
Results of a trial of 666 women with advanced breast cancer were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) this week. They revealed that palbociclib combined with existing drug letrozole increased progression-free survival for a median of 24.8 months compared with 14.5 months for women taking letrozole alone.
Advertisement
Palbociclib has been available in the US for more than a year, but you still can鈥檛 get it in Europe. The drug鈥檚 maker, Pfizer, applied for a European licence last August, but the European Medicines Agency is yet to make a decision.
Even if the drug is approved, UK charity Breast Cancer Now has voiced concerns that the $10,000 a month price tag will stop the National Health Service from funding the treatment.
Palbociclib is taken with letrozole to treat late-stage oestrogen receptor-positive breast cancer 鈥� the most common form of this cancer.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淐ancer lottery鈥�