Scotland Leads The Way In The Treatment Of Prostate Cancer

The Scottish Medicines Consortium is recommending two new life extending and life enhancing drugs.

Abiraterone - a hormone treatment for men with incurable prostate cancer that has spread to other parts of the body - was initially rejected by the SMC for use before chemotherapy in February 2015. 

However an Independent Review Panel has overturned this decision, meaning that abiraterone is now to become routinely available to men in Scotland who have not had chemotherapy. 
 
Radium-223 - a new treatment for men with incurable prostate cancer that has spread to the bones has also been approved for routine use on NHS Scotland, both before and after chemotherapy.
 
Scotland has now become the only part of the UK where abiraterone and radium-223 are routinely available.

Charity Prostate Cancer UK is calling on England, Wales and Northern Ireland to follow suit.
 
Commenting on the news Director of Support & Influencing at Prostate Cancer UK, Heather Blake, said: 

“This fantastic news is an absolute triumph for everyone in Scotland who joined us in calling for men with incurable prostate cancer to be entitled to receive these life-prolonging and life-enhancing treatments. Today is their rightful reward for all their hard work.
 
“Now that the correct decisions have been made health boards must waste no time in ensuring that men who need these treatments can access them as soon as possible. Men with incurable prostate cancer should not be subjected to any further delays at a stage in their life when time is at an absolute premium.”
 
Blake concluded: “Delighted though we are for men who are able to routinely access these drugs in Scotland, our work will go on until NICE follows the SMC’s lead and approves these treatments as the next step towards delivering full access for men throughout the whole of the United Kingdom.”