NICE MAKES FINAL DECISION ON AVASTIN, ERBITUX FOR BOWEL CANCER

The UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has published final guidance on the use of Roche's Avastin and Merck Pharmaceuticals' Erbitux for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.

NICE does not recommend the use of Avastin (bevacizumab) as a first-line therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer or the use of Erbitux (cetuximab) following the failure of an irinotecan-containing chemotherapy regimen. This means that the joint appeal against the recommendations for Erbitux by Bowel Cancer UK and Cancerbackup and the appeal by Merck have not been upheld.

"In this case, our advisory committee was certainly aware that colorectal cancer is an aggressive disease and that the treatment options available are limited," Peter Littlejohns, NICE's clinical and public health director, said. "However, the difficult job they have to do is to balance the additional therapeutic benefit offered by these new treatments against their cost. The assessment of the evidence shows that neither of these drugs represents a good use of [National Health Service] resources."

"NICE's decision demonstrates their continued indifference to people living with advanced bowel cancer. No one should be in any doubt that the basis for it is financial and bears no relation to the efficacy of the drug, which is well proven. Erbitux offers hope to patients when other treatments have failed and NICE is taking away that hope," Bowel Cancer UK said in a statement on its website.

The guidance is available at www.nice.org.uk/guidance/TA118.