The controversy over the decision by Dublin's Mater Hospital to defer clinical trials of a new cancer drug continued yesterday when an all-Ireland research group spoke about the difficulties its members were having trying to make certain drugs available to patients at the hospital.
The Irish Clinical Oncology Research Group (ICORG) said it noted with regret "the difficulties experienced by our members in the Mater Hospital in their efforts to make clinical research trial drugs available to their patients with cancer".
The group's comments come just days after the Mater deferred trials of the drug Tarceva, which is said to prolong the life of patients with advanced lung cancer, because it believed the information leaflet which had been devised to give to women receiving the drug ran contrary to the hospital's ethos. Women were required to take steps to ensure they did not become pregnant while on the drug.
The trial is already under way at a number of other hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Galway.
The group's spokesman, Dr Brian Moulton, said that at a time when Governments north and south of the Border were to be congratulated for investing significantly in cancer research, it was disappointing to think that any group of patients would be excluded from access to the latest cancer treatments.
"Any institution which aspires to excellence in cancer care will provide a framework to ensure the speedy provision of properly regulated research drugs to its patients in the context of such studies. We firmly believe that the urgent needs of patients with cancer should figure prominently in any decisions reached in individual institutions concerning access to such treatments," he added.
Meanwhile, a new study on access to cancer drugs has found that the provision of cancer treatments in Ireland is broadly in line with the European average.
However, the authors conclude that Ireland is below average in providing vital new drug treatments to patients.
The report, A Pan-European Comparison Regarding Patient Access to Cancer Drugs, was published by the Karolinska Institutet, a research body, in conjunction with Stockholm School of Economics.
The report noted that, though more patients are being diagnosed with cancer in Europe, fewer are dying of the disease. The exception is lung cancer in women; the mortality rate is increasing. Cancer accounts for about 1.7 million deaths annually in Europe.