Tag Archives: cancer
Government launches £200 million a year Cancer Drugs Fund
Delivering on NHS modernisation: Government launches £200 million a year Cancer Drugs Fund, as raft of improvements is rolled out in the new financial year
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Published date:1 April 2011
A £200 million a year Cancer Drugs Fund that will help cancer patients get greater access to cancer drugs their doctors recommend for them, was launched by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley today.
The commencement of the fund follows the successful £50m interim fund that has helped over 2,000 cancer patients from across England gain access to life-extending drugs since October last year.
The Cancer Drugs Fund is just one of a number of commitments made reality today. From 1 April:
Cancer awareness campervan ‘Daisy’ to tour rural Northumberland
Cancer awareness campervan ‘Daisy’ to tour rural Northumberland
NHS staff are to tour rural Northumberland in a VW campervan as part of ongoing efforts to raise awareness of the early symptoms of cancer amongst local residents.
‘Daisy’, as the campervan is affectionately known, will be visiting locations across Tynedale, Berwick and Alnwick during April to spread the word on the importance of being clued up on the early cancer symptoms and why keeping an eye on your body and knowing what’s normal and what’s not, should be routine.
Skin Cancer Breakthrough
Cancer Breakthrough After Tadpole Tests
Thomas Moore, health correspondent
A drug discovered with the help of tadpoles could prevent the spread of the deadliest form of skin cancer.
The drug leflunomide is already used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
But after tests on tadpoles scientists have concluded it could be a powerful treatment for malignant melanoma.
Researchers at the University of East Anglia used tadpoles because of an evolutionary link between the pattern of dark spots on their skin and the way melanoma cancer cells spread around the body in humans.
They injected 3,000 compounds into frog embryos and discovered that leflunomide dramatically changed the way the pigment pattern developed on the tadpoles.
