Hi all.
It is my understanding that next month NICE are expected to approve the use of cetuximab (think iv got that right) for advanced bowel cancer and also for some other types of cancer.
However i have been reading some posts and it appears that some patients are already having this?
Please can anyone tell me why this is? Many thanks
FormerMember
Hi Positivelady, there's a bit in the daily mail today about cetuximab, saying that it was approved by NICE a few weeks ago, and that it could help save 2,000 lives a year. I don't know about Cetuximab, but I know that some drugs that are licenced for one particular type of cancer, but not another, can be obtained by Consultants with special permission from authorities. Chemo drug I was on is licenced for brain tumours but not my type of cancer, (although it shrunk tumours in 33% of sufferer) and my consultant had to apply for permission to try it on me. So if Cetuximab was used for something else originally, then was found to help bowel cancer, that may be how some patients have already had it. Depends on the consultant/oncologist. Hope that makes sense, Jeanie x
Hi there. I'm being given Avastin, (which is also a monoclonal antibody -- MAB) as part of a drugs trial but its not available widely to breast cancer patients, though it is available to other types of cancer patients. Best of luck with your treatment.
