Cancer drug Denosumab gets go-ahead

A new drug to prevent the crippling effects of cancer spreading to the bone has received the final green light making it available to the state-funded National Health Service patients, it was announced here Wednesday. Denosumab, marketed as Xgeva, helps patients avoid complications such as bone fractures and spinal compression - when the spinal cord is painfully squeezed by the bone. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice), which assesses the cost effectiveness of new treatments, today published its final guidance on the drug. It recommended denosumab as a treatment option for adults with advanced breast cancer and other tumours that have spread to the bone, other than prostate cancer. Prostate cancer patients are normally prescribed other drugs called bisphosphonates to prevent bone complications, doctors said. If there are medical reasons why they cannot take bisphononates, they will also qualify for denosumab under the new guidance. Professor Carole Longson, director of the centre for health technology evaluation at Nice, said: "Denosumab is a welcome addition to the current treatment options available for the people in whom it has been shown to be clinically and cost effective."