NICE rules on paclitaxel
The U.K.'s National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), which advises Britain's National Health Service on the use of approved drugs, devices and procedures based on clinical and cost effectiveness, has determined that paclitaxel in combination with cisplatin or carboplatin should be the standard initial therapy for ovarian cancer following surgery. NICE added that the combination therapy also should be used to treat recurrent or resistant ovarian cancer if the patient has not previously received the combination, but the combination was not recommended to treat recurrent or resistant ovarian cancer if the patient has previously received both drugs.
The recommendation is in line with the label for Taxol paclitaxel, developed by Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), which is approved in the U.K. as primary treatment for ovarian cancer in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced disease or residual disease after surgery, and metastatic ovarian cancer in patients who have failed standard therapy with cisplatin or carboplatin. However, NICE had previously noted that there is uncertainty among British medics over the use of paclitaxel as first line treatment of ovarian cancer. ...