Rejected petition Allow stage 4 cancer patients to restart therapy after a treatment break

Under the current NHS England policy, patients who are having successful treatment with the medicines cetuximab or panitumumab may not restart treatment if they need a break longer than 6 weeks. We believe this is unethical practice.

More details

There are various reasons why a patient may need to take a long break during successful treatment of advanced cancer. For example:
1. Side effects so they need time to recover
2. Major surgery means long breaks from treatment
3. Clear scans because treatment was so successful, but the cancer may come back

All three of these examples demonstrate that the current 6-week rule is unethical and unfair, it needs to be reviewed and abolished.

This petition was rejected

Why was this petition rejected?

It’s about something that the UK Government or Parliament is not directly responsible for.

We can't accept your petition because the UK Government and Parliament aren't responsible for the issue you raise. This is a clinical and operational matter for NHS England Specialised Commissioning.

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards.

Date submitted 13 July 2021
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