Bowel cancer is notorious in the UK claiming almost 50 lives per day. Treatment for this cancer is effective only if it is detected early.
The plan to disallow the NHS to use two important drugs for treatment of advanced stages of bowel cancer, has drawn flak from Charities, who do not agree with the recommendations of The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), who did not see enough evidence to suggest the drugs, Avastin and Erbitux, as best treatment for advanced stages of bowel cancer. Scotland has also seconded this move to block the usage of the two drugs by NHS.Charities continue to assert that both these drugs treat patients well, and may even extend the life expectancy by 4 to 5 months. The drugs are very similar to the breast cancer drug’Herceptin’ and are monoclonal antibodies. Bowel cancer, being the second biggest killer, requires better evaluation of treatment procedures, according to widely held opinion.
