Kidney cancer, which is fairly rare, is very resistant to normal chemotherapy drugs and the immunotherapy drugs have only limited success. In 2006, I entered a clinical trial on a new drug "Sutent". Though this drug is not offered as a cure, it can reduce the size of the tumours and/or cause them to remain stable. In my case, one tumour cannot be traced on a scan and the others have remained stable. For more than two years, this drug has offered me a reasonable quality of life as well as an extension of my life span.

I would like those who seek to put a financial value on human life, such as those who comprise the body of NICE, to put themselves in the position of the following:

The patient suffering from terminal kidney cancer who is denied a drug which may extend his life.

The family of such a patient who experiences the anguish of seeing their loved one deprived of medical treatment which may help him/her.

The many doctors in oncology who have devoted their lives to helping their patients knowing that they cannot prescribe a drug which may well benefit sufferers.

The thousands of research doctors and scientists who give all their time and effort to trying to discover how to beat the workings of the cancer cells knowing that should they produce a promising drug which could hold the disease at bay, the NHS may not be prepared to fund the cost of treatment.

No wonder many doctors and medical staff are thoroughly sickened with the New Labour Government which so undervalues the contribution of the medical profession as well as human life.


'Conspiracy of complacency' over modified crops


From: Dr Brian John, Cilgwyn, Newport, Pembrokeshire.

BERNARD Dineen said this in his column (Yorkshire Post, August 4): "The first major GM crop with direct consumer benefits, low-saturated fat soya beans has been on sale in the US for nearly 10 years... GM foods and crops have been grown and eaten for many
years without even a hint of health problems."

Bernard is welcome to his views on GM, but he should check his facts before simply trotting out whatever he is fed by the GM industry and
its apologists.

First, GM soya was never introduced as a low-saturated fat product or as a crop with consumer benefits – it was developed in order to enhance sales of Roundup herbicide.

To quote from Monsanto: "Genetically-modified (GM) soya is indistinguishable from conventional beans in composition, nutrition and processing characteristics."

That's not true, but for the moment we'll let that pass. And second, there are abundant identified health problems and risks linked to GM in
the literature, most (but not all) coming to light as a result of animal feeding studies.

Toxic effects are seen in many GM foods and crops; they have an identifiable effect upon the immune system, and the organic changes that result have all the signs of pre-cancerous conditions.

For obvious reasons, governments have refused to undertake epidemiological studies into these effects. The documented evidence of harm is well known to the Government and the GM industry, but has been systematically swept under the carpet.

Bernard does all of us a disservice by becoming a part of this "conspiracy of complacency".