Spend on cancer per patient in England 2006 - 2007

£7,836

Compare this with other PCTs: highest amount spent was £17,028, lowest was £5,182, and average PCT spend per cancer patient was £8,437.

Exceptional funding for cancer treatment

The following information was requested from the PCT under the Freedom of Information Act.

Written protocols
Norfolk PCT has a policy and procedure for introducing new medicines and indications, irrespective of whether these are for cancer drugs or not. 

Process
Norfolk PCT makes "a small provision to cover the exceptional use of medicines in individual patients.  The unpredictability of exceptionality and its funding implications means that there is no presumption that this sum is sufficient to cover all requests for exceptional funding.

So the process for considering requests for exceptional funding takes place in a cost-constrained context - where it cannot be presumed that there is even sufficient funding for all who meet certain clinical eligibility criteria for a particular medicine".

The exceptional use of a medicine needs to be proposed by the patient's specialist.

Cancer treatments funded by PCT following exceptional requests

Please note that at the time this information was collected, Norfolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney all formed one PCT.

Since 01 April 2007, the PCT funded treatment for 42 patients.  The treatments were:

• Adefovir
• Alemtuzab
• Bortezomib
• Caelyx
• Cetuximab
• Cinacalcet
• Dasatinib
• Docetaxel
• Docetaxel and irinotecan
• Erlotinib
• Gemtuzumab
• Imatinib
• Pemetrexed
• Rituximab
• Sorafenib
• Tarceva
• Temozolomide
• Zevalin

Cancer treatments not funded by PCT following exceptional requests

Since 01 April 2007, the PCT declined to fund the following treatment:

• Avastin x 2
• Bortezomib
• Bortezomid (Velcade) x 4
• Cetuximab x 3
• Docetaxel and irinotecan x 2
• Docetaxel
• Gemicitabine and paclitaxel chemotherapy
• Sorafenib x 2
• Sunitinib x 6