Patient hoping for change of heart on drug

7:53pm Saturday 12th April 2008

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A DYING cancer patient is hoping for a change of heart by health bosses after going to court in a bid to obtain a cutting-edge drug which could add years to her life.

Anne MacFarlane, of Bedale, is challenging a decision by North Yorkshire and York Primary Care Trust (PCT) not to fund her treatment with Lenalidomide, a new medicine still not widely available.

Mrs MacFarlane, 65, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma - a form of cancer affecting plasma cells in the bone marrow - in 2004 and has been told by specialists backing her case that she urgently needs the drug, which could extend her life expectancy by five or six years.

After an appeal against the decision by the PCT - which says the drug would not be clinically-effective enough and the case is not sufficiently "exceptional" for it to break its own guidelines - failed, Mrs MacFarlane's solicitors launched a High Court judicial review challenge, under which an appeal hearing will take place within weeks.

The PCT has agreed to reconsider an application from her consultant haematologist to fund a four-month Lenalidomide treatment, which Mrs MacFarlane's legal team say would cost around £20,500.

But Mrs MacFarlane's husband, Andy, said: "We feel bitter and angry at the NHS's bloody-mindedness - we have lost all faith in them.

"It should never have had to go this far because we believe it would cost the PCT less to treat Anne with Lenalidomide, but we have spent thousands of pounds fighting our case and we will continue to spend whatever we have to."

A PCT spokeswoman said: "The PCT will be reconsidering the case in light of additional clinical information. This is a separate process from the court proceedings."