4 September 2015 - The Cancer Drugs Fund in England will no longer pay for 16 medicines, used in 23 separate cancer treatments.

It has now more than halved the number of treatments it covers since the beginning of the year after being repeatedly overspent.

The latest drugs being axed include those for breast, pancreatic and blood cancers.

The Rarer Cancers Foundation said the news was a "hammer blow" and estimated that 5,500 patients would miss out.

All the drugs on the Cancer Drugs Fund list have been rejected by the NHS as a whole because they do not provide enough benefit for the amount they cost.

The fund was set up by Prime Minister David Cameron to provide access to such medication.

However, NHS England announced that the fund was due to go £100m over budget in 2014-15.

At the beginning of 2015, there were 84 funded therapies, but after a series of culls there are now just 41.

For more details, go to: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34153136