Funding boost for cancer treatment

The national drug-funding agency Pharmac has announced it will make a more convenient treatment available to sufferers of colorectal cancer.

Pharmac medical director Peter Moodie said about 450 extra people each year would be given capecitabine, a tablet form of chemotherapy.

The tablets would be available to patients with stage three cancers.

"More people being treated for colorectal cancer will take tablets at home instead of going to hospital to received multiple infusions over a prolonged period of time," Dr Moodie said.

At the moment, most colorectal cancer patients were visiting hospital up to 30 times in six months.

Some patients were already taking the tablets, but the extra funding meant the treatment would be more widely and consistently used, he said.

The more convenient treatment would be particularly useful for people who lived in rural areas, or in towns without major hospitals.

The tablets would be available by prescription at community pharmacies.

Dr Moodie said the increased access would cost Pharmac at least $1.7 million a year, but there would also be a cost-saving because it would reduce hospital treatments.

"This is not only much better for patients but frees up precious resources in hospitals...to deliver chemotherapy to other patients."

Colorectal cancer was the second most common cancer in New Zealand, with about 2300 new cases and 1200 deaths each year.

source : news.yahoo.com