Cancer patient calls for bile duct cancer drug use approval

A cancer patient who said he can live "a normal life again" after receiving a treatment on a clinical trial has backed a campaign for the drug to be made available on the NHS. Surgeon Gareth Honeybone, from Sheffield, was diagnosed with bile duct cancer – or cholangiocarcinoma - when he was 27 and was treated with the drug zanidatamab. The 31-year-old said: "The tumour disappeared from scans, which if I was on the standard treatment wouldn't have happened. If it wasn't for this drug I wouldn't be at the moment cancer free." Officials from The National Institute for Healthcare and Care Excellence (NICE) initially rejected the drug for widespread use, but are discuss it again in March. There were "important questions that still need answering" about how much benefit the drug provides, and how it compares to other treatments, a NICE spokesperson said. "Our independent committee carefully reviewed all the available evidence," they said. "This suggests zanidatamab is likely to help people live longer and delay their cancer getting worse. "The committee was unable to make a positive recommendation based on the evidence submitted by the company at the first meeting," they added. Honeybone