A YORK MP has called for a rethink on proposals to block NHS funding for a new bone cancer treatment.

Hugh Bayley has written to Health Secretary Andrew Lansley after being approached by the parents of Bethan Copland, a 16-year-old Fulford School pupil who died after a three-year battle against the disease.

Her parents, Chris and Hilary, said providing treatment for an illness which primarily affected young people should be a top priority and they were appalled by draft guidance by the National Institute For Clinical Excellence, which opposed the NHS’s use of a new treatment called mifamurtide.

Mr Bayley, York Central’s Labour MP, told the minister he understood mifamurtide was used to treat osteosarcoma throughout Europe and survival rates were improved by almost a third as a result of the treatment.

He said an appeal lodged by the Bone Cancer Research Trust against the decision made a well-reasoned case for NICE to change its finding. “I believe that NICE should conduct a further review,” said Mr Bayley, who also asked how Government proposals to alter NICE’s powers to make recommendations on the funding of drugs would affect the decision on mifamurtide.

Mr Copland thanked the MP for his support, but said he was concerned by his proposal for a fresh review of the drug in future when he believed it should be given the green light now.

He said it was estimated that eight more young people with osteosarcoma would survive every year if the treatment was introduced.

“We cannot afford to wait any longer for this lifeline,” he said.

NICE has said previously that although evidence showed mifamurtide might be more effective than chemotherapy alone, there was “substantial uncertainty” around how much extra benefit it could offer over and above currently available treatments, especially considering the exceptionally high cost the NHS was being asked to pay with finite resources.