Mother with cancer in £20,000 fight to fund her drug treatment

A MOTHER suffering from terminal breast cancer faces having to raise £20,000 to obtain a drug which her specialist says could allow her to see her children grow up.

Trudy Cusworth has been told the disease has spread and is inoperable – but the NHS will not prescribe the drug Avastin, which might help prolong her life.

A panel of doctors at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has told her she doesn't need the Avastin – even though her own oncologist from the same trust says she would benefit.

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Now, because the panel decided the 40-year-old does not need the drug alongside her next round of chemotherapy, the request will not be submitted to regional health chiefs who would decide whether to fund it.

Mrs Cusworth's only hopes are a new national drugs fund or raising the 20,000 cost herself.

Mrs Cusworth, who is mother to Nathanial, 11, Dylan, seven and Jasper, five, said: "I accept that I'm not going to be an old lady but I would like to see my children grow up.

"They are messing about with my life here. My children are little boys and they need a mum."

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Mrs Cusworth, who lives near Selby with her husband Steve, was first diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2006.

She had surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy and afterwards went into remission.

At the end of last year she began to feel unwell and tests revealed that the cancer had spread to her lungs and lymph nodes.

"I was absolutely devastated," she said. "They told me I would be having some chemo but they could not operate and I would not need any radiotherapy."

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She started chemotherapy in January, which shrank the tumours.

But in September she was told the cancer was returning and she would need more chemotherapy soon.

Her consultant at the Bexley Wing at St James's Hospital, in Leeds, said she could also benefit from Avastin, although it would not cure her illness.

The medicine is not available on the NHS for cases like hers as it has not been considered by drugs watchdog the National Institute for Clinical Excellence for that purpose.

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However medics can apply for special funding from the patient's Primary Care Trust.

Before that, a committee of hospital doctors needs to decide whether there are medical reasons why they should have the drug – but the Leeds hospitals panel did not think there were any such reasons.

Mrs Cusworth's consultant is now applying to a new 50m Government cancer drugs fund which was set up last month.

If that is not successful Mrs Cusworth, who previously was studying and working as a healthcare assistant on a palliative care ward, is planning to raise funds in a desperate attempt to obtain the drug herself.

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Avastin will not cure Mrs Cusworth, but it could prolong her life.

She is especially determined as the drug is available in other countries – but needs to get it within weeks so she can start her next treatment before her condition deteriorates.

Last night a spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals said: "In this case, after lengthy consideration by the committee, it was regrettably agreed that the clinical evidence was not convincing and therefore an application for funding to our commissioners would have no realistic chance of success.

"We are extremely sympathetic to the circumstances of Mrs Cusworth and are already looking at other options which can be pursued."

Hopes raised for prolonged lives

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Avastin was launched in 2004 as a cancer drug used to treat a special type of brain tumour as well as breast, colon, kidney and lung cancer.

Several cancer sufferers across Yorkshire have campaigned to be prescribed the drug, believing it to be their last best hope of extending their lives, but health authorities have been reluctant to pay the cost of each treatment. The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) had also ruled out its use within the NHS because it was deemed not cost- effective.

Avastin costs over 20,000 per patient a year and an estimated 6,500 people per year could be eligible for the treatment.