6 March 2014 - Patients suffering from cancer in England are up to seven times more likely to be prescribed expensive cancer drugs than fellow sufferers in Wales, a new study assessing the impact of the Cancer Drugs Fund has revealed.

Researchers from the University of Bristol compared the prescription of 15 cancer drugs in both countries to show the divide created by the introduction of the CDF in 2010 to help patients in England access certain drugs.

The CDF is money the Government has set aside to pay for cancer drugs that haven't been approved by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and aren't available within the NHS in England. The scheme was due to end this year, but David Cameron has pledged £400 million to keep it running.

The governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland decide on how they spend money on health and so far haven't decided to run a similar programme.

There are currently over 70 drugs available through the CDF, with over 38,000 patients in England receiving them in the past three years. Reasons for NICE not approving them could be because the drugs haven't been looked at yet or because NICE have said they are not cost-effective.

For this study, researchers analysed data from hospital pharmacies in both England and Wales from August 2007 to December 2012, to capture data from before and after the establishment of the Cancer Drugs Fund.

The 15 drugs were selected to represent different categories of NICE approval - recommended, not recommended and not appraised.

The results, published in the British Journal of Cancer, show that drugs recommended by NICE were not prescribed any more in England than in Wales following the introduction of the Cancer Drugs Fund.

For more details, go to: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/273554.php