paying for treatment

Can't find any costs for docetaxel here:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/pe/cdf/cdf-drug-sum/#sept

but costs for another chemo treatment, cabazitaxel, are:

The cost of cabazitaxel per 3-week cycle at the list price (including VAT) for a patient of body surface area 1.8m² for this indication is £4435. The median duration of treatment in the cabazitaxel was six 3-weekly cycles (4.2 mo).

from here:

http://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ncdf-summ-cabaztxl-post-doctxl.pdf

thanks for the replies, am going for a referral tomorrow am paying private for it but my firm say they may reimburse me for the cost, will keep you posted

nidge

my oncologist at donny offered me treatment either stampede or early stage docetaxel chemo, I chose docetaxel, then to be informed that they had changed the criteria and if I do not meet this will be unlikely to be offered it, also the time span has now taken me beyond being able to go on stampede

paying for treatment was a consideration but having 18-20,000 pounds I don't have

so yes I feel cheated, unwanted, not cared for by the NHS, and a burden, they have played russain roulette with my life and I have lost, not that they are bothered they will just move on

if someone had said if you get this disease called cancer where would you like to be treated, my answer know would be anywhere that isn't covered by Weston park

nidge

It must be very hard to know that you are being denied life extending drugs because of cost. (I am mindful that sometime on my cancer journey I might find myself in this situation).
However, the NHS is under tremendous pressure with a growing and ageing population with higher expectations from it and with more expensive equipment and higher cost drugs to fund. There is also a need for more appropriately and highly trained staff which will add considerably to costs. Notwithstanding any small savings that may be possible within the NHS itself, the situation is only likely to improve if there is a very large increase in the NHS budget. All Government Departmental budgets have been squeezed - one of the few exceptions being the overseas aid budget as has been mentioned previously where the UK donates more than any other European country. There is a strong feeling among many people that much of this is wasted and some of the money could be better spent on the NHS . Another way might be to raise a tax specifically for the NHS which would be 'ring fenced'. However, many people feel that we are already too highly taxed in the UK so whether this would work out I don't know.

Meanwhile, the NHS is expected to provide a better service than it can with insufficient resources and inevitably some patients are not going to get the latest and most expensive drugs, especially where lives are only likely to be extended for a short time. Some argue that younger patients should have priority here. An irony is that patients who want to die are being given treatment and facilities to keep them alive, whereas others patients who want to live are being denied drugs that would help them do so.

I also wrote to the PM about these and others matters quite a time ago. My letter was passed on to several departments and after a long delay I got a very 'woolly' response which made me feel I had wasted my time.

this may open a can of worms, but some of the people you mentioned chose to go down the path they are on and demand and say it is my right to have this treatment or it is against my human rights not to get want they want

I never and most on here did not choose this path, and yet get told no you are not getting this or that, I don't want to write much more as I am to angry, not with anyone on the post mind

nidge

Mr Bladerunner,

its very easy for me to say fightback, I'm not in your position,

I'd seriously consider writing to your local MP, you can do this via a simple email, make sure you put your own home address so they know your a constituent, check her/him online, to get there email address, and raise awareness of your situation, you dont have to wait weeks to visit there office and speak in person, email is the fastest way to get a response IMO, even if they pass on up the chain of command etc

also maybe via social media, FB etc, perhaps friends,and relatives can to write in too, its a start and who knows where it will go

personally what I'd really like to do is to punch those mother******* politicians on the nose, direct action you might say, just to draw there attention .

                                                                                  I wish you luck

I understand why some of you are angry but I don't think some of the posts here are that rational.

We don't encourage anyone to rant or challenge or contact their GP when they don't meet the criteria for Stampede or PIVOTs or any of the other clinical trials and this is no different. Early chemo is still in the trial phase - they need to gather sufficient data to prove it works and get NICE to approve it for everyone. The NHS will not see it as playing with Nidge's life or refusing him a treatment he has a right to - at the moment, early chemo is unproven in their eyes and he is being offered what other men in England get.

Even 12 months ago on here, if we heard a man was being offered chemo we were all sad because we knew that meant he had run out of alternatives and was moving into the end stage. It has moved on so quickly for the scientists and for us because we have members who have had the early chemo and got great results but that doesn't translate into everyone having a right to it immediately - look at the Abbi/Enzo debate and Allister's struggle to get a treatment he desperately needs.

It's OK saying that some drugs are still in the trial stage. I accept that drugs that work for one patient won't necessarily work for another, but for tried and tested drugs, i.e. Aberaterone, Enzalutamide, Radium 223 and Cabataxal to be denied purely on cost grounds is immoral,unethical and a crime against humanity. When you are in a position where quality of life is good (as in my case) and the desire to maintain that quality is denied, due to mismanagement of funds, then I think you have a right to be angry and rant and rave. It is apathy that allows Governments to get away with it. Everybody affected SHOULD STAND UP AND BE COUNTED before it is too late for them. Rant Over.

As I said above, I am in this situation and I went to see my MP a couple of weeks back. Luckily for me he is a bit of a campaigner and has had some success getting NHS treatment that was previously denied for local people with a range of conditions. He's written to various bodies already and we're waiting for a response. He's also prepared to bring it up in the house and ask the PM but didn't want to 'ruffle those feathers too early'. Hopefully he will get a reply where I have failed...