NICE publishes final guidance on bevacizumab and cetuximab for the
treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has
today published final guidance on the use of bevacizumab and cetuximab
for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer.

The guidance does not recommend the use of these drugs for first line
therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer (bevacizumab) and therapy
following the failure of an irinotecan containing chemotherapy regimen
(cetuximab) and means that the joint appeal by Bowel Cancer UK and
Cancerbackup and the appeal by Merck Pharmaceuticals have not been
upheld.

Commenting on the guidance, Peter Littlejohns, Clinical & Public
Health Director, said : " The decision of the Appeal Panel means that
the recommendations set out in the final appraisal determination will
form the Institute's guidance to the NHS in England and Wales. The
kinds of decisions the Institute is asked to make are amongst the most
difficult in public life. Those who form our advisory committees are
acutely aware of the responsibility they carry and they form their
recommendations with great care. In this case, our advisory committee
was certainly aware that colorectal cancer is an aggressive disease
and that the treatment options available are limited. 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 NHS resources." Read the press release at
http://www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=401251