HC Deb 25 February 2002 vol 380 cc948-9W
Dr. Gibson

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of years of life lost following the potential blocking of the use of irinotecan in first line use for advanced colo-rectal cancer; and if this criteria is a feature of NICE assessments; [32772]

(2) what assessment he has made of the NICE guidance on the colo-rectal cancer drugs (a) irinotecan, (b) oxaliplatin and (c) ralitrexel in relation to cancer survival rates; and what figures on European survival rates he has collated. [32771]

Yvette Cooper

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence has not yet issued guidance on the appraisal for colo-rectal cancer drugs and the draft guidance is currently subject to appeal.

Figures on European survival rates from colon and rectal cancers are given in the tables.

Colon cancer—age standardised relative survival (percentage) Europe 1985–891
Males Females
Country 1 year 2 year 1 year 2 year
Austria 75.0 54.7 60.5 44.0
Denmark 63.7 39.2 64.0 42.7
England 61.6 41.0 60.5 41.3
Estonia 51.5 36.5 52.7 38.0
Finland 68.6 47.6 68.8 50.0
France 73.7 51.8 72.5 54.0
Germany 66.4 49.6 70.0 49.9
Iceland 61.6 48.7 67.4 51.8
Italy 67.3 46.9 68.5 47.0
Netherlands 75.7 58.7 72.4 55.7
Poland 43.4 24.8 43.1 22.6
Scotland 61.5 41.1 61.3 41.1
Slovakia 58.7 38.9 54.1 38.3
Slovenia 50.1 33.2 53.9 38.1
Spain 66.6 49.5 66.5 49.4
Sweden 71.4 51.8 73.4 55.2
Switzerland 74.6 52.3 73.7 49.4
Europe 1985–89 66.3 46.8 66.4 46.7

Rectal cancer—age standardised relative survival (percentage) Europe 1985–891
Males Females
Country 1 year 2 year 1 year 2 year
Austria 71.7 46.7 75.6 54.2
Denmark 69.7 38.2 69.7 41.5
England 67.4 40.1 68.2 41.0
Estonia 56.8 34.1 61.4 35.5
Finland 80.4 49.3 75.5 46.1
France 78.6 48.4 79.6 48.4
Germany 74.5 43.5 72.4 43.6
Iceland — — 80.8 52.5
Italy 72.4 43.0 74.0 44.2
Netherlands 79.0 52.4 80.4 53.8
Poland 52.9 21.2 53.1 21.9
Scotland 65.5 36.3 65.2 38.7
Slovakia 60.0 35.1 62.4 37.1
Slovenia 60.4 28.6 60.3 31.3
Spain 71.9 43.3 70.3 43.1
Sweden 76.1 49.2 79.5 51.9
Switzerland 75.9 52.6 82.9 51.6
Europe 1985–89 71.9 42.6 71.8 42.9
1 Survival of Cancer Patients in Europe: the Eurocare-2 Study 1999

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