Terminally Ill Cancer Patients Given Hope

The UK's Department of Health has decided to allow 19 hospitals to administer experimental cancer drugs to patients whose cancer has been deemed terminal. In many cases, these drugs are still years away from being approved for treating the disease. The first center to start delivering this last bit of hope has been opened at Bart's Hospital in London, with others in the works in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and England.

While the patients have been said to be “desperate” to take the medicine as part of the initial trials, the decision is not without controversy. There are still some ethical issues for many, and the only reason the Department of Health approved the plan is because the patients involved have stopped responding to traditional therapies and have no other hope for recovery.

“We can get a very early clue on whether the drug is doing what we want it to do. If it isn't, we can get the patient off the study, so they are not being exposed to the potential toxicity of the drug,” said John Gribben, professor of experimental cancer medicine at Bart's Hospital.

Doctors are hoping these studies will help to fast track the approval process of the new drugs being tested. Currently, it takes approximately 10 years to develop a drug to the point where it's approved for widespread use. Gribben is hoping to cut that process in half with the testing. “We no longer have to wait to complete a study to see what happens to the cancer,” he said.

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