Al 'can cut cost of postcode-lottery wonder drug'

HEALTH bosses in England are being urged to end the postcode lottery for a life-saving prostate cancer drug after a landmark study.

- By Hanna Geissler Health Editor

The hormone therapy abiraterone is approved for patients with an advanced condition that has returned and spread.

But it is not approved for men who are newly diagnosed with high-risk prostate cancer that is yet to spread, despite having been available for these patients in Scotland and Wales for two years.

Now a potentially cost-saving study has found artificial intelligence can identify who will benefit most — cutting the number who would need to be treated from around 8,400 to just over 2,000.

Professor Nick James, an Institute of Cancer Research expert and oncologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Trust, said: "I truly hope that this new research — showing precisely who needs the drug to live well for longer — will lead to NHS England reviewing their decision."

Sufferer Giles Turner has paid £20,000 for the drug privately so far.

The retired banker, 64, of Brighton, said thousands of men in England who could not afford the “cheap, life-saving and cost-saving drug” were missing out.

He added: “Action must be taken by NHS England and Department of Health right now.”

Scientists at the ICR in London and University College London used AI to analyse biopsy images from more than 1,000 patients in a trial of the drug.