Some cancer patients may miss out on crucial tests

CANCER patients may be missing out on the most effective treatments because of poor access to new biomarker tests, according to a survey of senior hospital doctors.

Three-quarters of the 100 UK oncologists who took part in the online poll said they were having to overcome barriers to the use of targeted medicines.

More than half (53 per cent) of the consultants and registrars admitted they “often or sometimes” prescribed a treatment that was not necessarily the best choice for an individual patient because of lack of access to tests.

And 22 per cent said patients were sometimes given drugs without reference to test results that could indicate whether or not the treatment will work.

The tests are used to identify patients with particular genetic make-ups or blood proteins that make them suitable for specific therapies.

Lung, breast and bowel cancers and leukaemia are the key diseases where “personalised medicines” have become available.

One of the first examples of a targeted drug requiring a biomarker test was the breast cancer treatment Herceptin. It is only effective for women with an overactive Her2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) gene.

A gene called KRAS appears to play a key role in bowel cancer.

The survey was sponsored by drug company Merck Serono, which announced last year it would fully fund KRAS biomarker testing for all UK bowel cancer patients.